88 REMARKABLE FLOWERS. [CHAP. 
following :—“ This orchid has part of its labellum, or 
lower lip, hollowed out into a great bucket, into 
which drops of almost pure water continually fall 
from two secreting horns which stand above it; and 
when the bucket is half full, the water overflows by 
a spout on one side. The basal part of the labellum. 
stands over the bucket, and is itself hollowed out 
into a sort of chamber with two lateral entrances; 
within this chamber there are curious fleshy ridges. 
The ingenious man, if he had not witnessed what 
takes place, could never have imagined what purpose 
all these parts serve. But Dr. Criiger saw crowds of 
large humble-bees visiting the gigantic flowers of this 
orchid, not in order to suck nectar, but to gnaw off 
the ridges within the chamber above the bucket; in 
doing this they frequently pushed each other into 
the bucket, and their wings being thus wetted they 
could not fly away, but were compelled to crawl out 
through the passage formed by the spout or over- 
flow. Dr. Criiger saw a ‘continual procession’ of 
bees thus crawling out of their involuntary bath, 
The passage is narrow, and is roofed over by the 
column, so that a bee, in forcing its way out, first 
rubs its back against the viscid stigma ‘and then 
against the viscid glands of the pollen masses. The 
pollen masses are thus glued to the back of the bee 
which first happens to crawl out through the passage 
of a lately expanded flower, and are thus carried 
away. Dr. Criiger sent me a flower in spirits of 
wine, with a bee which he had killed before it quite 
crawled out with a pollen mass still fastened to its 
back. When the bee, thus provided, flies to another 
