1863— 1860] ORCIIII 337 



I daresay an abstract which I hive seen will appear in tl. r 661 



Gardeners' Chronicle ; but blunders have crept in in copyin 

 and parts are barely intelligible. J low insects act with your 

 Stanhopea I will not pretend to conjecture. In many cases 

 I believe the acutest man could not conjecture without seein 

 the insect at work. I could name common English plants 

 in this predicament. But the musk-orchis [Herntiniunt 

 monorckis] is a case in point. Since publishing, my son and 

 myself have watched the plant and seen the pollinia removed, 

 and where do you think they invariably adhere in dozens of 

 specimens? — always to the joint of the femur with the tro- 

 chanter of the first pair of legs, and nowhere else. When one 

 sees such adaptation as this, it would be hopeless to conjecture 

 on the Stanliopca till we know what insect visits it. I have 

 fully proved that my strong suspicion was correct that with 

 many of our English orchids no nectar is excreted, but that 

 insects penetrate the tissues for it. So I expect it must be 

 with many foreign species. I forgot to say that if you find 

 that you cannot fertilise any of your exotics, take pollen from 

 some allied form, and it is quite probable that will succeed. 

 Will you have the kindness to look occasionally at your bee- 

 Opluys near Torquay, and see whether pollinia arc ever 

 removed? It is my greatest puzzle. Please read what I have 

 said on it, and on 0. arachnites. 1 have since proved th.it the 

 account of the latter is correct. I wish 1 could have eiven 

 you better information. 



P.S. — If the flowers of the Stanhopea are not too old, 

 remove pollen-masses from their pedicels, and stick them 

 with a little liquid pure gum to the stigmatic cavity. After 

 the case of the Ao/-p c -ra, no one can dare positively say that 

 they would not act. 



To J. D. Hooker. Letter 662 



Down, Saturday, 5th [Dec. 1S63]. 



I am very glad that this will reach you at Kew. You will 

 then get rest, and I do hope some lull in anxiety and fn 

 Nothing is so dreadful in this life as fear ; it still sickens me 

 when I cannot help remembering some of the many illness - 

 our children have endured. My father, who was a sceptical 

 man, was convinced that he had distinctly traced several c. 

 of scarlet fever to handling letters from convalesce! 

 VOL. II. 22 



