8 A NEW ZEALAND NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 



across or less, and apparently sitting on each is a large 

 spicier with long legs. The resemblance is only very super- 

 ficial, but it is sufficiently strong to give that impression at 

 a little distance. On coming closer it is found to be A\\e to 

 a flower of rather peculiar shape. 



To anyone unacquainted with the subject the peculiarity 

 of its stnicture will be most readily explained by contrasting 

 it with some other better-known flower. Thus, if we take 

 a Blue-bell (wood hyacinth) in our hand we find that the 

 flower is made up of six blue leaves the perianth leaves 

 inside of which are six stamens, and inside of these a small 

 globe-like ovary with a three-branched style and stigma. 

 The parts are quite easily made out, even without the aid 

 of a pocket lens. The perianth leaves in many flowers are 

 distinguishable into an outer set of sepals, forming the 

 calyx, and an inner set of petals, forming the corolla, but 

 in the blue-bell their position is the only index of what they 

 are. The three which are outermost in the bud are the 

 sepals, and they are usually a little broader than the three 

 petals which they partially enclose. Each stamen has on 

 the top of its stalk a club-shaped head or anther which 

 opens when mature and permits a quantity of pale blue 

 waxy pollen grains to escape. When these get on to the 

 stigma, either of their own or another flower of the same 

 kind, they usually bring about fertilisation of the ovules, 

 and this leads to production of the seed. These facts are 

 familiar to most persons who know anything about plants. 

 Now, if we compare our little orchid flower with the blue- 

 bell we can trace out certain resemblances, together with 

 very numerous dissimilarities. The six perianth leaves are 

 present, but they are very unlike one another. At the 

 back of the flower is one rather large sepal, which is 

 greenish in colour but more or less striped and spotted 

 with purple, this arches over the rest of the flower like a 

 helmet, and shuts in all but the front. Facing it is a large 

 purple lower lip, which is the inner petal or labellum. 

 These two parts form the chief portion of the flower. The 

 other four perianth leaves, two sepals and two petals, are 

 lengthened out into long slender tails, and it is these which 



