78 INTRODUCTION. 
time from being developed at a very early period of growth, before the 
shape or existence of any part of the flower is of importance for the 
well-being of the plant. 
‘‘Can we feel satisfied by saying that each Orchid was created, 
exactly as we now see it, on a certain ‘ideal type’; that the omnipotent 
Creator, having fixed on one plan for the whole Order, did not depart 
from this plan; that He, therefore, made the same organ to perform 
diverse functions,—often of trifling importance compared with their 
proper function,—converted other organs into mere purposeless rudi- 
ments, and arranged all as if they had to stand separate, and then 
made them cohere? Is it not a more simple and intelligible view that 
all the Orchidee owe what they have in common, to descent from some 
monocotyledonous plant, which, like so many other plants of the same 
class, possessed fifteen organs, arranged alternately three within three 
in five whorls ; and that the now wonderfully-changed structure of the 
flower is due to a long course of slow modification,—each modification 
having been preserved which was useful to the plant, during the in- 
cessant changes to which the organic and inorganic world has been 
exposed ?”’ (ib. pp. 245, 246). 
Not only have Orchids attracted attention by the beauty and 
singularity of their flowers, and by the long-hidden secrets of their 
structure, but also on account of the wonderful complexity and 
diversity in the contrivances for their fecundation, which, in the 
great majority of the Order, is effected solely by the agency of insects, 
and for the most part appears to be specially designed to ensure cross- 
fertilisation. There are remarkable exceptions, but the general rule is 
as above stated. On this subject the student is referred to the classical 
work of Darwin named above, where it is treated with entrancing 
interest. 
II.—Tue Care Penrinsvuna. 
The Cape Peninsula is a tract of land about 40 miles long, varying 
in width from about 8 to 11 miles, and connected with the continent 
by a broad and low sandy isthmus of 11 miles wide. As I have taken 
it, for this and other purposes, it is bounded by a line drawn 3 miles 
east and north-east of the main road which runs from Cape Town to 
Simonstown, and has a total area of 1974 square miles, being thus 
about one-fourth larger than the Isle of Wight, which contains 155 
square miles. A great part of its surface is occupied by a central 
mountain-range, running north and south from Table Mountain (the 
highest part, and which attains an elevation of 8562 feet) to the 
southern extremity at Cape Point. 
The exposed rocks are, for the most part, sandstone on the moun- 
tains, with patches of the underlying clay-slate, and also granite; on 
the low ground are sandy downs of considerable extent. 
