1922] Ames,—Notes on New England Orchids,—II 45 
indicated by Darwin's observations.  Heestimated that a ripe capsule 
of Cephalanthera grandiflora yielded 6,020 seeds, of which very few 
were bad. In Orchis maculata he found about the same number of seeds 
and estimated that the combined capsules of a single inflorescence 
would furnish 186,300 seeds, and that, allowing for a certain percen- 
tage of infertile seeds, such an inflorescence, if six inches were alloted 
to each plant produced, had the capacity to populate an acre of land. 
'The great grandchildren of this population, if removed from competi- 
tion, he found, would be sufficiently numerous to cover, with a uni- 
form green carpet, the entire surface of the earth throughout the globe. 
The interesting point here, if we accept prodigality of seed yield as 
a sign of low organization, is not what would be the result if Orchis 
maculata enjoyed one hundred per cent fertility and complete capacity 
to germinate, but that the species observed by Darwin are admittedly 
low in the scale of development as we arrange orchids taxonomically, 
and that they are pretty poor in seed yield when compared with some 
of the more highly developed species of the Sarcanthineae, species which 
are admittedly the most highly organized orchids from the point of 
view of botanical classification. In other words it is among the more 
highly developed orchids, taxonomically speaking, that seed yield 
reaches truly extraordinary profusion! Fritz Mueller estimated that 
a single capsule of a Maxillaria species yielded 1,756,440 seeds, and 
yet, Maxillaria is admittedly much higher in the evolutionary scale, 
as botanists estimate development, than either Orchis or Cephalan- 
thera. But why not admit that though a vast expenditure of energy 
in the production of seeds was characteristic of the ancestral orchids 
and indicates that in the dim history of the group a low degree of 
organization was manifested, the orchids are now a highly specialized 
concept, the prodigality of seed yield having been perpetuated, and 
increased in the more highly organized Sarcanthineae, as a necessity, 
because of the peculiarities of the symbiotic relations that sprang into 
existence when an intrusive fungus became a helpful partner in the 
economy of the ancestral orchids? In other words, prodigality of seed 
7 In many species of the Orchidaceae the ovules are still rudimentary at the time 
of pollination; the stimulus exercised by the pollen-tube induces further development. 
The stimulus is not necessarily dependent on the fertilizing influence of the pollen- 
tube, as it is brought about when pollen which is without capacity to bring about 
fertilization is applied to the stigma. This peculiarity has a deep significance in 
connection with the present discussion. 
