Introductory 



marvellous adaptation to fertilization by 

 insects. Even the schoolboy nowadays is 

 taught that the object of vivid coloring 

 and striking form in a flower is not man's 

 delight, but the production of seed ; 

 in other words, the continuance of the 

 species. He learns that by these means 

 insects are attracted to the nectar-yielding 

 blossoms, and that while rifling them fo 

 their treasure, they inadvertently brush 

 upon their bodies, from the little dust- 

 bags known as anthers, some life-giving 

 pollen which later they are sure to de- 

 posit, again unconsciously, upon the 

 moist, roughened disk or stigma of the 

 next flower they visit. Here, the botany 

 teaches, the tiny grains emit tubes which 

 penetrate to the ovules in the ovary be- 

 low and quicken them into life. 



Now it is believed that ' orchids are pe- 

 culiarly unfitted to fertilize themselves — 

 that is, if the pollen from the dust bags, 

 or anthers, of any given flower of this 



9 



