226 ABOUT ORCHIDS. 
the genus, it ceases to be extraordinary that Cy- 
pripeds rarely cross in their wild state. Different 
species of Cattleya, Odontoglots, and the rest live 
together on the same tree, side by side. But 
those others dwell apart in the great majority of 
cases, each species by itself, at a vast distance 
perhaps from its kindred. The reason for this 
state of things has been mentioned—natural laws 
have exterminated them in the spaces between, 
which are not so well fitted to maintain a doomed 
race, 
Doubtless Cypripeds rarely fertilize—by com- 
parison, that is, of course—in their native homes. 
The difficulty that insects find in performing that 
service has been mentioned. Mr. Godseff points 
out to me a reason far more curious and striking. 
When a bee displaces the pollen masses of a 
Cattleya, for instance, they cling to its head or 
thorax by means of a sticky substance attached 
to the pollen cases; so, on entering the next 
flower, it presents the pollen outwards to the 
stigmatic surface. But in the case of a Cypriped 
there is no such substance, the adhesive side of 
the pollen itself is turned outward, and it clings 
to any intruding substance. But this is the 
fertilizing part. Therefore,an insect which by 
chance displaces the pollen mass carries it off, as 
