302 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
the flower may be enabled to exclude such unwelcome 
visitors, which lose their lives in a vain effort to suck 
the interior of the spur. 
O. ustulata has the entrance to its spur so 
reduced in diameter that its fertilisation has to 
be carried out by butterflies and moths. The 
Pyramidal Orchis (O. pyramidalis) is LAkewise adapted 
for such insects, in this case by the rostellum over- 
hanging the mouth of the much-lengthened spur 
and thus closing it to all but the slender tongues 
of butterflies and moths, for whom also the pollinia 
are specially adapted, being joined at their base by 
an adhesive saddle-shaped band to fit the proboscis 
instead of the head. 
The greenish-flowered Man Orchis (Aceras anthro- 
pophora) is one of the numerous peculiarly-shaped 
flowers which naturally suggest likeness to some 
other creature. The lip has four narrow lobes which 
stand for arms and legs, while the other petals and 
the sepals form a hood which passes for the man’s 
head. In this flower there is no spur, the pollinia 
are joined at their base and contained in one pouch 
instead of two as in the genus Orchis. 
The genus Ophrys includes three species with 
flowers remarkable for their likeness to animal forms, 
which has suggested their popular and scientific 
names. One of these is the Bee Orchis (0. 
apifera), whose lip is of a purplish-brown, and the 
sepals coloured pink within. The general appearance 
is not unlike that of a humble-bee, and many years 
ago Robert Brown suggested that the likeness had 
for its object the prevention of bee-visits. This 
is a view that does not commend itself at the present 
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