THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



39 



proved by the fertilization last year of some dwarf Yellow 

 Lady's Slippers that were brought the year before from a 

 swamp fifteen miles away. The spot where they were set out 

 in my garden is not far from the lake shore, to be sure, but 

 the nearest place where any Lady's Slippers grow, and that 

 high ground, is two miles away. They were, therefore, not de- 

 pendent upon the insects of any particular locality, and even 

 in a very sheltered, and as it seemed unfavorable position, were 

 quickly found out by the proper bees or flies. 



Orchis spcctabilis is called a True Orchis, because its anther- 

 cells are " parallel and contiguous," and the glands of the stigma 

 (the viscid discs) are enclosed in a pouch ; and next to the True 

 Orchises, in botanical arrangement, stand the Naked-gland 

 Orchises, belonging to the sub-genus Gymnadenia. In these 

 the anther-cells are still parallel, but the viscid discs, though 

 near together, have no pouch to enclose them. We have but one 

 representative species in New England, H. tridentata, to be 

 spoken of hereafter, as it blooms later than Orchis spectabilis, 

 although allied to it in structure. After the Naked-gland 

 Orchises, in our botanies, come the False Orchises, belonging 

 to the sub-genus Platanthera, and these, says Gray, have 

 their anther-cells " more separated and divergent," so that the 

 viscid discs, also unenclosed, " are carried, one to each side of 

 the broad stigma." In some species, in which the discs do not 

 stand far apart, there are curious contrivances, such as a chan- 

 nelled lip, lateral shields, etc., compelling moths to insert their 

 proboscides directly in front. " The sticky disc, in some 

 American species looking like a little pearl button, stands, 

 when the flower bud opens, directly in the way of the head of 

 a moth or bee ; and here the viscidity of the disc is beautifully } 

 adapted to the state of things, for although fully exposed to ' 

 the air, instead of setting hard at once, as in Orchis, the disc 

 retains its viscidity during the whole period of the expansion 

 of the flower, awaiting the coming of the insect, and quite sure 



