19G TUE JOUKNAL OF 150TANY 



column there Avas a conspicuous conical white tooth, evidently rudi- 

 ments of anthers. The flower had been well visited by insects ; of four 

 flowers open no less than three had masses of pollen on the stigma, 

 one of them having a complete pollinium tliere. None of the flowers 

 Imd had their own pollinia removed except one, from which one of the 

 two only had been taken. Possibly this may have been due to some 

 of the insects alighting on one of the lip-like petals, and thus not 

 being in the proper position to remove the pollinia. The column 

 spur and ovary were all normal. 



On the 18th May I watched a field full of O. morio for some 

 hours in hot sunshine. I caught a specimen of Apathus riqyesfris on 

 Fedimilaris sylvafica with two pairs of pollinia attached to its head, 

 so that it had evidently deserted morio for the latter. I soon after 

 saw another specimen of the same bee visit a spike of morio. With 

 this exception I did not see a single insect of any kind visit this 

 orchis. There were not many humble-bees about, but those on the 

 wing evidently much preferred the flowers of Pedicularis to those of 

 morio. I noticed one fly round a group of about a dozen viorioSj 

 and then pick out a plant of Pedicularis growing in the middle of 

 them, which was so inconspicuous that I did not see it until the bee 

 di-ew my attention to it. But although there was so little doing on 

 this day, I found evidence that morio is freely and effectually ferti- 

 lized. There were as yet very few spikes whose flowering was over, 

 but I gathered seven, from various parts of the field, with the following 

 results : — 



Ovary visibly swelled 



and evidently ferti- Ovary not 



lized in swelled in 



1 8 flowers. 4 flowers. 



2 7 „ 3 „ 



3 11 „ 1 ,, (the top one). 



4 5 „ 3 „ 



o o ,, ^ M 



6 8 ,, 3 ,, 



7 4 „ 6 ,, (of these 4 still unfaded). 



Therefore, omitting spike no. 7, Avhich is not a fair criterion, for 

 one of the 6 flowers had pollen on the stigmaj though the ow&Yy had 

 not vet begun to swell, we find forty-four swollen and developed 

 ovaries against sixteen not swollen. There were not very many 

 Bombi about, but those on the wing evidently much preferred the 

 flowers of Pedicularis to those of morio. There were a few spikes 

 of morio of a delicate pink colour scattered singly over the field, 

 much more pleasing in colour than the ordinary purple ones, but of 

 fifteen which I gathered only two had one flower and two had two 

 flowers fertilized, whilst in them all onl}^ one flower had both pollinia 

 removed, and one other flower one only. It would thus appear that 

 they are less attractive to Bomhi than the ordinary purple spikes. 

 In the whole field I saw only one pure white morio which had not 

 vet been visited. I noticed at Pisa that pink varieties of the purple 



