Orchids 307 
just mentioned. Here all is green, even to the long 
slender raceme of small flowers, and chlorophyll is 
abundant. The flowers are in most respects similar 
to those of the Bird’s-nest, which, consequently, we 
have not described separately. The lip is long and 
narrow, slightly hollowed at the base, and honey is 
secreted in a groove along the centre. The anther is 
hinged to the back of the column which is free from 
the sepals and petals, and the pollen is in two 
powdery masses. Ichneumon flies and small beetles 
are the agents in cross-fertilising this Orchid, and the 
arrangements for utilising their visits afford an 
interesting variation upon those hitherto considered. 
These small insects alight on the divided tip and 
gradually make their way upward, licking up the 
nectar in the central groove until they come to the 
end of it at the base of the lip. Then, lifting up their 
heads, preparatory to moving off, they strike them 
against the edge of the thintongue-like rostellum. This 
touch is sufficient to irritate the rostellum to the 
secretion of a minute drop of a wonderful white 
cement, which touches at once the insect’s head and 
the pollinia, fixing them together and hardening 
instantly. No matter how many flowers the insect 
visits in which the pollinia are still present, these are 
added to its head, so that six or seven pairs of these 
pollinia may be carried upon the head of a single 
ichneumon fly or beetle before it visits a flower from 
which the pollinia have been previously removed. 
Then, the rostellum being no longer irritable and ceas- 
ing to protect the stigma, some of the pollen is now 
left behind. A number of flowers may thus be cross- 
fertilised before the insect takes up more pollinia, 
