II2 THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



with many stigmas." At another time, " a Sesia * sucked 

 nectar from every open flower on one spike : when caught, it 

 had about twenty pollinia attached to it ; both moths had pro- 

 boscides so encumbered with the pollinia that it was impossible 

 for them to be coiled up between the palpi. The shortness of 

 the time occupied in the depression of pollinia in this species 

 and the time that the insects remained at one plant would 

 seem to indicate that the upper flowers on the spike, at least, 

 were fertilized by pollen from the same plant. I have fre- 

 quently seen the orthopterous insect Phancroptera curvicaiida, 

 Serv., feeding upon the flowers of this Orchid, but could not 

 find that they ever effected its fertilization, although pollinia 

 were several times found attached to their feet." 



The author once examined four spikes of H. psycodcs to see 

 what their attendant insects had accomplished. The plants 

 grew near together in a damp hollow by a shady roadside. 

 Omitting 45 that had set their seed, there were in all 182 

 open flowers (one spike bore 64 blossoms, two of them double, 

 and the plant was twenty-three inches high), and of this 

 number, 69, mostly on the upper parts of the spikes, had had 

 no pollen removed ; 49 had lost both pollen-masses ; 61 had 

 lost one apiece, 34 removed from the right hand, 27 from 

 the left. In the case of one spike where but 8 flowers had lost 

 both pollen-masses and 19 had lost but one, only 5 had been 

 taken from the left hand. I found one pollinium sticking by 

 its disc to a stigma, and one I removed myself fell, striking 

 the stigma, not with its heavy end as one would suppose, but 

 with its disc. I questioned whether the pollinia might not be 

 occasionally shaken out of their cells by hard winds, but this 

 was improbable ; and in Miiller's work I have since found an 

 explanation. Speaking of humble-bees caught with pollen- 

 masses on them, he says, " we frequently observed . . . 

 that when the pollen-masses bent forward the bee was able 



S. diffinis, BoisJ. 



