BATH FLORA, FERTILISATION, ETC. 229 



i.e.^ as many capsules as there had been flowers. In extremely 

 few cases (excepting a few deformed flowers, generally on the 

 summit of the spike) could a flower be found which had not pro- 

 duced a capsule. . . . From what I have seen of the British 

 Orchids, I was so much surprised at the self-fertilisation of the 

 species that during many years I have looked at the state of 

 the pollen-masses in hundreds of flowers, and I have never 

 seen in a single instance reason to believe that pollen had been 

 brought from one flower to another. Excepting in a few mon- 

 strous flowers, I have never seen an instance of the pollinia 

 failing to reach its own stigmas. In a very few cases I have 

 found one pollinia had vanished, but in some of these cases the 

 marks of sHme led me to suppose that slugs had devoured 

 them." 



The winged carriers which perform the office of conveying 

 pollen are doubtless mainly moths and butterflies. Mr. Darwin 

 states that he has never seen any other insect visit Orchids, though 

 he had watched them for twenty years. The sweet scent of 

 Hahenaria chlorantha^ and Gynmiadenia conopsea is calculated to 

 attract insects. As the former does not give out its sweet scent 

 until sunset, it probably attracts the night-fly i7ig moths. That 

 bees occasionally visit some of the species of Orchids cannot be 

 doubted. The very interesting specimen of a humble bee with 

 five pollinia attached to it, which I have seen in the possession 

 of a friend, is the best evidence that can be adduced. M. 

 Manier speaks of having seen, in Dr. Guepin's collection, bees 

 collected at Saumur with the pollinia of Orchids attached to their 

 heads, and Professor Westwood sent Mr. Darwin a humble bee 

 and hive bee, both with pollinia attached to them. Mr. F. Bond 

 also sent to him a large number of moths in this condition. Mr. 

 Darwin gives a list of some 23 species of Lepidoptera with the 

 pollinia of O. pyramidalis attached to the proboscis. One unfor- 

 tunate Caradrijia had no less than eleven pairs attached to its 

 proboscis. Thus encumbered, it could not possibly reach the 

 extremity of the nectaries, and must soon have come to an 

 untimely end. 



I have to thank my wife for the sketches made from nature 

 of the various Orchids referred to, and for having reduced the 

 same for the purpose of the plates which accompany this paper. 



VOL V. R 



