Notes ox the Royal Moccasin Flower. 



191 



There seems to have been little actual observation done 

 upon the polHnation of this flower. Darwin mentions bees 

 as the implied fertilizers for the genus Cypripedium, and Gibson 

 says "doubtless many of the smaller bees do effect cross- 

 fertilization in the smaller species." He says that he has often 

 sat long and patiently in the haunt of the cypripedium, await- 

 ing a natural demonstration of the cross-fertilization of C. 



Fig 3 Sketches of the flower of Cypripedium regtriae. showing manner of pollination 



acaule, but his devotion was never rewarded. He gives a 

 charming description of the process however, as demonstrated 

 for him by a captive bumble bee with cut flowers in his study. 

 In C. hirsutum Dawin found that small bees were more ser- 

 vicable. Prof. Herman Miiller studied C. calceoliis for many 

 years and gives the following description of its cross-fertiliza- 

 tion, which I quote in full, as it applies equally well to C. reginae, 

 so far as my observations go. "I have observed", he says, 



