212 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS 



parting guest with a sticky plaster smeared all 

 over its back. As the insect works its way be- 

 neath the viscid contact, the anther is seen to be 

 drawn outward upon its hinge, and its yellow con- 

 tents are spread upon the insect's back (Fig. 18 

 C), verily like a plaster. Catching our bee before 

 he has a chance to escape with his generous 

 floral compliments, we unceremoniously introduce 

 him into another cypripedium blossom, to which, 

 if he were more obliging, he would naturally fly. 

 He loses no time in profiting by his past experi- 

 ence, and is quickly creeping the gantlet, as it 

 were, or braving the needle's eye of this narrow 

 passage. His pollen -smeared thorax is soon 

 crowding beneath the overhanging stigma again, 

 whose forward- pointed papillae scrape off a por- 

 tion of it (Fig. 1 8 B), thus insuring the cross-fer- 

 tilizing of the flower, the bee receiving a fresh 

 effusion of cypripedium compliments piled upon 

 the first as he says "good-bye." It is doubtful 

 whether in his natural life he ever fully effaces 

 the telltale effects of this demonstrative an rcvoir. 

 Such, with slight modifications, is the plan 

 evolved by the whole cypripedium tribe. Darwin 

 mentions bees as the implied fertilizers, and 

 doubtless many of the smaller bees do effect 

 cross-fertilization in the smaller species. But the 



