160 MYSTERIES OF THE FLOWERS 



upturned stigma ? The explanation is that he makes 

 a "bee line" for the brightly coloured lip, grasps it 

 with his claws, and with all his weight pulls it over 

 upon himself and tumbles backward upon the 

 stigma, placing his pollen-charge just where it is 

 most wanted. In an unceremonious way, the pol- 

 len has been projected into the heart of the flower, 

 the bee has paid his toll and now is free to wander 

 about and drink all the nectar he can find secreted 

 there. 



If the reader wishes to pursue the subject still 

 further, and investigate the doings of the foreign 

 orchids, he will unearth mysteries still more roman- 

 tic and extraordinary than any we have thus far 

 unveiled. He will learn of an orchid, the Pasquira 

 fragrens, which actually shoots its pollen mass, ex- 

 actly as a submarine shoots its torpedo. Then he 

 will come upon the story of a Catteleya which, for 

 nine successive years, produced pistillate flowers, 

 to the despair of its owner, till a time came when it 

 at last sent up a pollen-bearing flower. 



Even a legend is current of a vampire orchid 

 which deadened the senses of its finder, in order to 

 suck the blood from his veins. The romance of the 

 lost orchid, too, is full of thrills. A few specimens 

 were owned and treasured, but they gradually 

 dwindled and died away and their existence became 



