190 



HE GUIDE TO NATURE 



The Bucket Orchids. 



These are so unusual aud grotesque in 

 their appearance and structure that there 

 is nothing quite like them found among 

 the great variety of orchids, or even in 

 the entire plant kingdom. Perhaps no- 

 where is the curious structure of this 

 group of orchids more conspicuous than 



from which the plant receives its common 

 name. Unfortunately, the flowers are of 

 such short duration and the plant itself is 

 so difficult to cultivate, that few have had 

 the pleasure of seeing this floral curiosity. 



^ ^ ^ :}c ^ 



Dr. Cruger, formerly Director of the 

 Botanic Garden at Trinidad, writes as 



,3 « w 

 "^ - c 



o u, n 



n H 

 lip 





in the genus Coryanthes, of which there 

 are upwards of a dozen species indige- 

 nous to tropical America. The partially 

 opened buds resemble a bat at rest and 

 when the flower is fully opened it reveals 

 a ''bucket," which holds the nectar and 



follows of his observations of the insects 

 which pollinate the flowers : 



"Large humble-bees, noisy and quarrel- 

 some, are attracted at first by the smell 

 of the flower ; but the smell probably only 

 o-ives notice to the insects ; the substance 



