XX.] 



BOTANY. 



79 



to assume the horizontal position, that by the time 

 this has taken place the bee has visited all the flowers 

 of the plant from which it took the pollen, and has 

 gone to another plant. 



FIG. 57. a, section of flower of orchis, shewing a bee standing upon the 

 lip with its head touching the sticky gland to which the pollen masses 

 are attached ; b, bee's head with the pollen masses erect, as removed ; c, 

 the same with the pollen masses after they have moved forwards : 

 all enlarged. 



124. Birds with long slender bills, as humming- 

 birds, and also great moths, thus fertilize long-tubed 

 flowers ; in all which and many other cases the adjust- 

 ment of the parts of the flower to the form and habits 

 of the insect or bird, and of these to the flower, is so 

 accurate, that it is in vain to speculate whether the 

 plant was adapted to feed the animal, or the animal 

 adapted to fertilize the plant. 



