NOTES ON OECHIS MASCULA AND O. MORIO 195 



been visited at all, but these were younger, and in all probability- 

 would have been visited afterwards. 



I ascertained by examination with a Coddington lens that the 

 outer wall in morio was very thin and coloured, and the inner laj^er, 

 which appeared to be contiguous with it, consisted, as far as I could 

 see, of a whitish relatively thick layer of apparently spongy cellular 

 tissue ; the inner surface of this layer was covered with minute 

 papillte. When it was gently squeezed a small quantity of clean 

 liquid was exuded at the cut end, which retreated back as soon as the 

 pressure was removed, and was not sticky. It would be interesting 

 if someone accustomed to dissect with the aid of a microscope, and 

 with a knowledge of chemistry, would investigate this fluid and 

 determine whether it is, or is not, honey, and whether the layer 

 of spongy tissue is similar to that wdiich ordinarily secretes honey. 

 Delpino states that there is no ti-ace whatever of the glandular tissue 

 proper to honey-secreting surfaces. He only speaks, however, of 

 Italian specimens, and it seems desirable to ascertain definitely 

 whether this is really the case with the British plant. 



I could not find a single hybrid betw^een mascula and morio. 

 This is hardly to be wondered at ; except pei'haps, with marsh orchids, 

 hybrids are of very rare occurrence. It is necessary, in order that 

 one should occur, not only that the same insect should pass from the 

 flower, say of morio, to that of mascula (and bees generally are 

 fairly constant in visiting one species at a time), but also that the 

 flower should not be subsequently visited by an insect bearing pollen 

 from another plant of mascula, as, if this took place, the prepotency 

 of the pollen of the plant's own species would entirely nullify the 

 effect of the previous pollinization by the pollen of another species 

 (Darwin, Cross and Self-fertilization of Flants, p. 392). I, how- 

 ever, found three beautiful spikes of mascula which appeared to be 

 pure white except in the throat of the flowpr, which is greenish 

 yellow: under the lens, however, very faint-coloured spots Avere 

 perceptible on the lip. 



But my best discovery was a spike of morio, each flower of which 

 liad three perfect labella, the two upper petals having developed in 

 length, breadth, colour, and markings, into exact duplicates of the 

 true lip, but without a spur. This forms strong evidence against 

 Darwin's theory that the lip is a compound organ, made up of one 

 petal and two petuloid stamens. If this were really the case, all six 

 stamens would have been required to form the thi'ee li])s in this 

 flower : but the column with its stamen was present and normal. T 

 think w^e may safely conclude that, since the two jjetals in this flower 

 had been able to develop into perfect replicas of the lip, that the 

 latter is normally only a more fully -developed j^etal. In this 

 abnormal plant all three sepals were spreading wide in a vertical 

 plane, and not convergent into a hood, which latter is always a 

 marked characteristic of morio both at home and abroad. 



This flower was a perfect instance of peloria, as far as the sepals 

 and petals were concerned. The two lip-like petals sprang from the 

 outside of the base of the column, the true lip being joined to tlie 

 column in the usual wav ; on each side between the liu and tlic 



