Orchids 299 
menced. Many of our Orchids come into this 
category, and their money-bags in which their 
savings are stored are a couple of fleshy tubers 
at the base of the stem—in some species round 
or egg-shaped, in others flattened, and with finger- 
like processes from them. One of the pair is being 
used up for the flowers and seeds of this year, whilst 
the other is being filled with starch elaborated by 
the leaves for next year. But in some species these 
are something more than hoards of material, for by 
the peculiar order in which these are formed, the 
plant is enabled gradually to move away from the 
place it formerly held, and thus to get into fresh 
soil. Many of the bulbous plants change their situa- 
tions in a similar fashion when the soil they were 
planted in becomes exhausted for them. 
Taking one of the common species mentioned 
above, let us look at the flower more 
closely. The lip is broad in front and 
much narrower behind, affording good 
foothold for a bee, who on arrival inserts 
his long tongue in the hollow spur and 
pushes his head against the rostellum. 
The slight pressure is sufficient to rup- 
ture the membrane by which it 1s covered, 
and it splits across, disclosing two round care Puce 
disks connected to the foot-stalk of — poz Pollinia 
the pollen-masses, and covered with a %% Behe 
sticky fluid, by means of which they 
adhere to the head of the bee. 
At this time the two pollinia are quite upright, 
but their weight causes them to bend forward 
until almost horizontal and appearing like two 
