io 8 THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



a little milky adhesive fluid exudes. The fissure runs up the 

 whole length of the rostellum from the stigma beneath to the 

 summit : at the summit, the fissure bifurcates, runs down the 

 back of the rostellum on each side and round the stern of the 

 boat-formed disc. Hence after this splitting action the boat- 

 formed disc lies quite free, but imbedded in a fork in the ros- 

 tellum. When a bristle is laid for two or three seconds in the 

 furrow of the rostellum, and the membrane has consequently 

 become fissured, the viscid matter within the boat-formed disc, 

 which lies close to the surface, and indeed slightly exudes, is 

 almost sure to glue the disc longitudinally to the bristle, and 

 both are withdrawn together, and the two sides of the rostel- 

 lum are left sticking up like a fork. This is the common con- 

 dition of the flowers after they had been open a day or two 

 and have been visited by insects. The fork soon withers. 



" Long before the flower expands, the anther-cells, which are 

 pressed against the back of the rostellum, open in their upper 

 part so that the included pollen-masses come into contact with 

 the back of the disc. The projecting ends of the threads unit- 

 ing the leaves of pollen (which in Ophrys become true stalks 

 or caudicles), then became firmly attached to rather above the 

 middle part of the back of the disc. The anther-cells after- 

 ward open lower down, and their membranous walls contract 

 and become brown ; so that by the time the flower is fully ex- 

 panded, the pollen-masses lie almost naked, their bases (thick 

 ends) resting in a little cup formed by the withered anther-cell 

 and protected on each side by a membrane which extends 

 from the edges of the stigma to the filament (stalk) of the 

 anther," and forms another cup or " clinandrum." These 

 membranous sides of the clinandrum are thought to be the 

 rudiments of the two anthers which are seen in a developed 

 state in Cypripedium, only. " These rudiments aid their 

 brother anther." 



" The lip is channelled down the middle ; the nectar is col- 



