184 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



[1897. 



departed from the path of our great leader. To us it seems that 

 while selfishness is an undoubted condition of existence, self-sacrifice 

 is equally a natural law. It appears to be the higher development 

 of the original condition — the raison <T etre why selfishness exists. 

 Facts which Mr. Darwin would treat lightly, we may be pardoned 

 for desiring to see more clearly elaborated. 



The honey glands in flowers have been, in Mr. Darwin's view, so 

 closely related to the encouragement of insect visitors, that their 

 production where they could have little reference to the fertilization 

 of flowers is lightly treated. He refers 1 to an observation of Karr 

 that the bracteas of some orchids secrete nectar, that Fritz Muller 

 has seen a similar behavior in the bract of Oncidium in Brazil, 

 and that Mr. Rodgers had seen a similar secretion from the base of 

 the flower-peduncles of Vanilla. That he could have seen this fre- 

 quently in the species of orchids under his own observation is prob- 

 able. He names Phaius as one of the genera in which he exam- 

 ined the flowers for nectar. 2 I am sure I have seen honey glands 

 similarly situated in many orchids, but they are very evident in 

 Phaius grandifolius, a common species under cultivation, and prob- 

 ably the one Mr. Darwin had under observation. 



I have had before mefor a coupleof weeks past 

 a Nepalese species not uncommon in gardens, 

 Cymbidium aloeifolium, in which the copious 

 supply of nectar from the base of the bract, or 

 rather from the main stem at this point, attracts 

 general attention. It will be of interest to de- 

 scribe the development of the infloresence in 

 detail. The spike has sixteen flower buds on it. 

 The peduncles are at an acute angle with the 

 main stem, and perfectly straight until the 

 bud has reached its full size and is ready 

 to expand. When this stage is reached, the 

 peduncle takes a horizontal position and then makes a twist curv- 

 ing upwardly, and the labellum, which up to this time had formed 

 the upper portion of the perianth, becomes the lower. Many days 

 before this occurrence the nectar commences to ooze from the gland 

 at the base of the bract. Long before the opening of the floral seg- 

 ments the globule has reached its full dimensions of two or three 



1 Fertilization of Orchids, Chap. IX. 



2 Ibid. Chap. V. 



