88 



SAGACITY AND MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



Orchids all over the world are of the most ingenious 

 character; insomuch that Darwin's matter-of-fact 

 investigations, as recorded in his Various Contriv- 

 ances by IV kick Orchids are fci'tilised by Insects^ read 

 like a romance. The manner in which the pollen- 

 p-rains of Orchids are collected into two masses 



Fig. 37. — Pollen masses of Orchid. 



Fig. 38. — Section of Orchid flower ; {${) 

 stigmatic surface ; {a) poUinia ; {r) base 

 of ditto. 



{pollinia), in every species, indicates how successful 

 this method must have proved. There is a common 

 contrivance, adopted by species of Orchids far removed 

 from each other by geographical distance, whereby 

 these pollen masses are quickly detached from their 

 little chambers when ripe, and attached, as by some 

 kind of " diamond cement," to the heads of the 

 insects visiting the flowers (a device the reader can 

 experimentally imitate by carefully thrusting the 

 conical point of a black-lead pencil down the throat 



