322 BOTANY. [ch. xvi. 



" There is no end to the adaptations. Ought not these 

 casesto make one very cautious when one doubts about the use 

 of all parts ? I fully believe that the structure of all irregular 

 flowers is governed in relation to insects. Insects are the 

 Lords of the floral (to quote the witty Athenmum) world." 



This idea has been worked out by H. Muller, who has 

 written on insects in the character of flower-breeders or 

 flower-fanciers, showing how the habits and structure of the 

 visitors are reflected in the forms and colours of the flowers 

 visited. 



He was probably attracted to the study of Orchids by the 

 fact that several kinds are common near Down. The letters 

 of 1860 show that these plants occupied a good deal of his 

 attention ; and in 1861 he gave part of the summer and all 

 the autumn to the subject. He evidently considered him- 

 self idle for wasting time on Orchids which ought to have 

 been given to Variation under Domestication. Thus he 

 wrote : 



" There is to me incomparably more interest in observing 

 than in writing ; but I feel quite guilty in trespassing on 

 these subjects, and not sticking to varieties of the con- 

 founded cocks, hens and ducks. I hear that Lyell is savage 

 at me." 



It was in the summer of 1860 that he made out one of 

 the most striking and familiar facts in the Orchid-book, 

 namely, the manner in which the pollen masses are adapted 

 for removal by insects. He wrote to Sir J. D. Hooker, 

 July 12 : 



" I have been examining Orchis pyramidalis, and it 

 almost equals, perhaps even beats, your Listera case ; the 

 sticky glands are congenitally united into a saddle-shaped 

 organ, which has great power of movement, and seizes hold 

 of a bristle (or proboscis) in an admirable manner, and then 

 another movement takes place in the pollen masses, by which 

 they are beautifully adapted to leave pollen on the two later- 

 al stigmatic surfaces. I never saw anything so beautiful." 



In June of the same year he wrote : 



" You speak of adaptation being rarely visible, though 

 present in plants. I have just recently been looking at the 

 common Orchis, and I declare I think its adaptations in 

 every part of the flower quite as beautiful and plain, or even 

 more beautiful than in the woodpecker." * 



* The woodpecker was one of his stock examples of adaptation. 



