28 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



extract the nectar he places the two pollen-masses on its stigma. In 

 the large green orchis this process can be performed with a pencil, 

 instead of the proboscis of an insect. The two pollen-masses will 

 adhere to the pencil, and it will leave them on the second flower 

 and take away two for the third. In the Cypripedium, or lady's 

 slipper, the insect enters a large sac so fortified that he must take a 

 roundabout road to escape. Cypripedium venustum sets for insects 

 a trap, baited with nectar. In their effort to escape, the insects 

 detach pollen and carry it away with them to another blossom. 



As the apparatus for the fertilization of orchids is more remark- 

 able than that of any other flowers, so that of Catasetum is 

 most remarkable among orchids. In this genus a part of the 

 flower is drawn down like a spring trap, and in a warm room these 

 stallied masses of pollen when liberated will turn a somerset, sud- 

 denty hitting the object which touched the hair trigger. K the hand 

 is placed on this part of the flower and instantly withdrawn, the pol- 

 len will be received on the hand. 



Hybridization extends beyond the limits of the species. Cross- 

 fertihzation is conflned within the limits of the species, and its ob- 

 ject is the suppression of those vagaries which we see in varieties. 



The lecturer concluded by citing Mr. Darwin's general pi-oposi- 

 tion relative to the subject, namely, that many plants cannot be 

 self-fertilized. In those which can be and are self-fertilized as a 

 rule, there is provision also for occasional cross-fertilization. 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 



Saturday, January 27, 1877. 



W. C. Strong, Chairman of the Committee on Publication and 

 Discussion, presiding. Byron D. Halsted, M. S., of the Bussey 

 Institution, Harvard University, was introduced and read the fol- 

 lowing lecture on 



Injurious and other Fungi. 



From the early days of botanical science, the vegetable kingdom 

 has been divided into two grand divisions, namely : Phcunogamous 

 or flowering plants, and Cryptogamous or flowerless plants. 



