78 



THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAXD. 



united to the stamen of the inner circle that would normally 

 come opposite to it." 



Mr. S. I. Smith, of Norway, Maine, in some notes read before 

 the Boston Society of Natural History, in 1863, says that he 

 came on a bunch of this Lady's Slipper, " which was almost 

 covered with numbers of a minute flower-beetle, apparently 

 attracted by the nectar-like fluid that moistens the long hairs 

 in the labellum. These beetles were crawl- 

 ing over the flowers in every direction ; and 

 presently one crawled from one of the 

 lateral petals up the column, over one of the 

 pollinia with some difficulty, and out upon 

 the stigma. This was repeated three or 

 four times by different individuals ; some 

 returning by way of the column, others 

 passing over the sterile stamen on to the 

 labellum. Several beetles passed from the 

 lateral petals down to the labellum without 

 touching the pollinia or the stigma. Only 

 two were seen to alight upon any of the 

 flowers ; and one of these went into the 

 labellum without touching the pollinia or 

 stigma ; the other passed over both. Near- 

 ly all the beetles, when examined with a 

 lens, were found to have little masses of 

 pollen attached to them ; and many could scarcely walk for 

 this reason. Most of the flowers on which the beetles were 

 found had been fertilized, and under a strong lens showed 

 minute particles of pollen among the sharp pointed papillae 

 which beset the stigma. Of many flowers from different places, 

 nearly all had the pollen removed in minute particles from the 

 anther to the stigma ; but in two or three instances the pollen 

 had been removed in one mass as if by some large insect." 

 Turn now from this, our largest Orchid, to the Dwarf 



1 



Fig. 23.— Dwarf Orchis 

 Habenaria obtusata. 



