THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 35 



knowing well the locality referred to, with " its precipitous 

 walls of rock." The very flower one would select to figure in 

 a weird story, but, unfortunately, it is afterwards described as 

 " a little delicate thing that looked as if it were made to 

 press," and I reluctantly conclude that the writer fashioned 

 his plant to suit himself or had something very different in his 

 mind. 



In experimenting with this genus, Darwin discovered that C. 

 calceolus, " in a state of nature " depended " on bees belonging 

 to five species of the genus Andrena" and selecting one of 

 these bees, of very small size, he gave it a blossom of C. pn- 

 bescens to work upon. The insect entered by the upper opening 

 and attempted " to crawl out the same way, but always fell 

 backwards, owing to the margins being inflected. The pol- 

 ished inner sides," he thinks may also have been a hindrance, 

 and so the labellum acted " like a trap," such as is made in our 

 kitchens by pasting a paper over the mouth of a tumbler, cut- 

 ting slits in the paper and turning the edges in. Flies have no 

 trouble in getting at the contained liquid, but are rarely able 

 to escape. " The bee could not creep out through the slit be- 

 tween the folded edges of the labellum, as the elongated, tri- 

 angular, rudimentary stamen here closes the passage. Ulti- 

 mately it forced its way out through one of the small orifices 

 close to one of the anthers, and was found when caught, to be 

 smeared with the glutinous pollen." When put back, several 

 times, it climbed out in the same way, and the stigma was fer- 

 tilized as we saw in the Pink Lady's Slipper. " Thus the use of 

 all parts of the flower, — the inflected edges, or the polished 

 inner sides, — the two orifices and their position close to the 

 anthers and stigma, — the large size of the rudimentary stamen, 

 — are rendered intelligible." " The hairs," says Midler, speak- 

 ing of C. calceolus, " which are arranged in a broad band on the 

 floor of the labellum, seem to help the bees to climb up toward 

 the orifices, besides attaching them by their secretions. 



