18431862] BEE-ORCHIS 263 



copy. I have much regretted the time it has cost me, as it Letter 593 

 has stopped my other work. On the other hand, it will be 

 useful for a new third German edition, which is now wanted. 

 I have corrected it largely, and added some discussions, but 

 not nearly so much as I wished to do, for, being able to work 

 only two hours daily, I feared I should never get it finished, 

 I have taken some facts and views from your work " Fiir 

 Darwin " ; but not one quarter of what 1 should like to 

 have quoted. 



To A. G, More. 1 Letter 594 



Down, June 24th, 1860. 



I hope that you will forgive the liberty which I take in 

 writing to you and requesting a favour. Mr. H. C. Watson 

 has given me your address, and has told me that he thought 

 that you would be willing to oblige me. Will you please to 

 read the enclosed, and then you will understand what I wish 

 observed with respect to the bee-orchis. 2 What I especially 

 wish, from information which I have received since publishing 

 the enclosed, is that the state of the pollen-masses should be 

 noted in flowers just beginning to wither, in a district where 

 the bee-orchis is extremely common. I have been assured 

 that in parts of Isle of Wight, viz., Freshwater Gate, numbers 

 occur almost crowded together : whether anything of this 

 kind occurs in your vicinity I know not ; but, if in your 

 power, I should be infinitely obliged for any information. As 

 I am writing, I will venture to mention another wish which 

 I have : namely, to examine fresh flowers and buds of the 

 Aceras, Spirant Jies, marsh Epipactis, and any other rare orchis. 



1 Alexander Goodman More (1830-95), botanist and zoologist, dis- 

 tinguished chiefly by his researches on the distribution of Irish plants 

 and animals. He was born in London, and was educated at Rugby 

 and Trinity College, Cambridge. He became Assistant in the Natural 

 History Museum at Dublin in 1867, and Curator in 1881. He was forced 

 by ill-health to resign his post in 1887, and died in 1895. H C i s best 

 known for the Cybele Hibernica and for various papers published in the 

 Ibis. He was also the author of Outlines of the Natural History of the 

 Isle of Wight, of a Supplement to the Flora Vectensis, and innumer- 

 able shorter papers. His Life and Letters has been edited by Mr. C. B. 

 Moffat, with a preface by Miss Frances More (1898). There is a good 

 obituary notice by Mr. R. Harrington in the Irish Naturalist, May, 1895. 



3 Ophrys apifera. 



