18431862] OPHRVS AND HABENARIA 283 



to connect abroad this species and the bee-orchis, ever there Letter 610 



occur ? 



Some facts have led me to suspect that it might just be 

 possible, though improbable in the highest degree, that the 

 bee [orchis] might be the self-fertilising form of O. arachnites, 

 which requires insects' aid, something [in the same way] as we 

 have self-fertilising flowers of the violet and others requiring 

 insects. I know the case is widely different, as the bee is borne 

 on a separate plant and is incomparably commoner. This 

 would remove the great anomaly of the bee being a perpetual 

 self-fertiliser. Certain Malpighiacese for years produce only 

 one of the two forms. What has set my head going on this is 

 receiving to-day a bee having one alone of the best marked 

 characters of 0. arachnites} Pray forgive me troubling you. 



To G. Bentham. Letter 6n 



Down, June 22nd [1862?]. 



Here is a piece of presumption ! I must think that you 

 are mistaken in ranking Hab\enarid\ chlorantha s as a variety 

 of H. bifolia ; the pollen-masses and stigma differ more than 

 in most of the best species of Orchis. When I first examined 

 them I remember telling Hooker that moths would, I felt 

 sure, fertilise them in a different manner ; and I have just 

 had proof of this in a moth sent me with the pollinia (which 

 can be easily recognised) of H. chlorantha attached to its 

 proboscis, instead of to the sides of its face, as in H. bifolia. 



Forgive me scribbling this way ; but when a man gets 

 on his hobby-horse he always is run away with. Anyhow, 

 nothing here requires any answer. 



To J. D. Hooker. Letter 6l2 



Down, [Sept.] I4th [1862]. 



Your letter is a mine of wealth, but first I must scold you : 

 I cannot abide to hear you abuse yourself, even in joke, and 



1 Ophrys arachnites is probably more nearly allied to O. aranifera than 

 to O. apifera. For a case somewhat analogous to that suggested see the 

 description of O. scolopax in Fertilisation of Orchids, Ed. II., p. 52. 



2 In Hooker's Students' Flora, 1884, p. 395, H. chlorantha is given 

 as a subspecies of H. bifolia. Sir J. D. Hooker adds that they are 

 " according to Darwin, distinct, and require different species of moths to 

 fertilise them. They vary in the position and distances of their anther- 

 cells, but intermediates occur." See Fertilisation of Orchids, Ed. II., p. 73. 



