EVOLUTION c, 



position to come into contact with the stigmas, which, if they remained parallel, 

 as at first, they would not do. The viscidium is kept moist in a bursicule, as in 

 Orchis. 



In Orchis the viscidia are disc-like, and enclosed in a common moisture-filled pouch. 

 This is a beautiful piece of mechanism, supported by a spring hinge at the back. On 

 the slightest touch the pouch moves downwards and backwards, exposing the viscid 

 discs, which thus come in contact with the insect's head, and are withdrawn when it 

 retires. The pouch then resumes its original position, so that if by chance only one 

 of the two pollinia has been withdrawn, the viscid matter of the other is kept moist 

 and ready for action (PI. B, fig. i, D, E, p. 21). 



Finally, in Ophrjs, each viscid disc is protected from the air by a separate pouch, 

 which does not return to its normal position after displacement by an insect, as the' 

 removal of one disc does not expose the other. Further, attraction by honey etc. is 

 replaced by a more subtle allurement. The labellum mimics the female of the 

 visiting insect plausibly enough to induce the male to pounce upon it, as described 

 on p. 17. 



The genus Ophrys thus appears to show the highest degree of specialisation 

 yet attained in the evolution of terrestrial orchids. Well might Darwin write: 

 "The more I study nature, the more I become impressed with ever-increasing force, 

 that the contrivances and beautiful adaptations slowly acquired. . .transcend in an 

 incomparable manner the contrivances and adaptations which the most fertile 

 imagination of man could invent".' 



One must be credulous indeed to believe that such marvellous examples of co- 

 ordination between flowers and insects, "transcending the most fertHe imagination of 

 man", could happen haphazard without the guidance and planning of some directincr 

 Intelligence. ^ 



' Ibid. p. 286. 



