Orchids 303 
day; but it must be confessed that no satisfactory 
explanation for the likeness or the conspicuous 
colouring has been yet advanced. The colour of 
the lip might lead one to suppose that flies and 
wasps were invited to fertilise it, but the organs 
are so modified that self-fertilisation is a certainty. 
There is no rostellum, and the pollinia are perched 
on such long, attenuated footstalks that they fall 
forwards by the weight of the pollen-masses and 
dangle against the stigmas. 
The Fly Orchis (0. muscifera) presents a more 
striking resemblance to an insect. The lp and 
petals are bright-brown or dark-purple, the former 
with a squarish blue patch in the centre, and the 
latter so slender that they look 
like antennz, whilst the fly’s 
eyes are found in a couple of 
black shining bodies at the base 
of the hp. The plant is visited 
by two-winged flies such as 
love carrion, and those are 
mostly attracted also by pur- 
plish - brown flowers. The 
fact that they visit this 
plant is no new thing, for 
more than two hundred years ago, John Parkinson, 
the king’s herbarist, says, after describing the flower, 
“The naturall flie seemeth so to be in love with it, 
that you shall seldome come in the heate of the daie 
but you shall find one sitting close thereon.” The 
flies are attracted not only by the carrion colour, but 
also by minute drops of fluid which ooze from the 
surface of the lip, and probably by the “eyes” of 
20 
Fly Orchis 
