I'.] 



ORCHIDACE/E. 



229 



OBSERVE the partial twisting of the ovary, which renders 

 those parts of the flower which are really posterior appa- 

 rently anterior : the enlarged 3-lobed lip (labellum), the 

 base of which is continued into a spur, containing a sweet 

 fluid (nectar), sought after by insects ; hence the name 

 nectary applied by the older botanists to this and similar 

 spurs : the single anther adherent to the pistil, consisting 

 of two more or less parallel lobes, opening in front length- 

 wise at an early period, and terminating below in a small 

 round knob (the rostellum}, which projects over the mouth 



FIG. 173. Column of Spotted Orchis, a anther ; r rostellum ; 

 st stigma. 



of the nectary immediately above the viscid stigmatic 

 surface. The adherent anther, together with the ros- 

 tellum and stigma, constitute the column of the Orchis 

 flower. 



Each anther-lobe contains a pollen-mass (polliniuni) 

 a mass of pollen-grains, held together by internal elastic 

 threads, which tie the pollen to a slender stalk, the caudicle. 

 The caudicle terminates in a minute viscid ball, called the 

 gland, embedded in the rostellum. 



Take the very fine stem of a grass, or a finely-pointed 

 pencil, and thrust it gently into the spur of a newly- 



