AN xVRISTOCRATIC FAMILY. 45 



ified into the extraordinary organ called the "rostellum' 

 or beak, while the other two are merged into one. The few 

 exceptions need not here be considered. 



In some exotic species tactics similar to those of the lady- 

 slipper are employed and the lip is made a sort of trap. In 

 most orchids less dangerous methods — to the insect — are 

 used. He is simply invited to partake of sweets and then 

 allowed to depart without delay, though not always with- 

 out inconvenience, as we shall see. 



It is most likely that fragrance in flowers is to insects the 

 primary attraction, and that they have learned, as races if 

 not as individuals, to associate fragrance with the presence 

 of nectar. Probably color is a secondary attraction ; at any 

 rate, many species of orchids have nearly colorless flowers, 

 and observation shows that such are no less productive of 

 seed than the more gaily colored species. The insect, then, 

 drawn by the odor and perhaps by the color of the flower, 

 flies to it and naturally alights upon the most prominent 

 and convenient part of it, which is in this case the lip. The 

 lip is usually pendent, though occasionally, for good and 

 sufficient reasons, it may project nearly or quite in a hori- 

 zontal direction. On the lip there are often lines or de- 

 pressions which serv^e as guides to the nectary at its base. 

 In the different genera various ways have been contrived 

 by which guests may be made to serve as express messen- 

 gers. In some cases only a little or a part of the pollen is 

 removable, in others the whole of it. In some it is detached 

 in thin plates, in others in compact masses. 



The genus Habenaria includes some of our most beauti- 

 ful and also most familiar orchids. To it belong the gor- 

 geous purple fringed orchids, H. fimbriata {grandiHora) 

 and psy diodes and the common ragged orchid, H. lacera. 

 It is in this genus, and the allied genus Orchis, the type of 

 the family, that the specialization of the pollen has been 

 carried to the greatest extent. The single anther produces 



