!20 THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



view as you look into the narrow opening of the flower ; and a 

 proboscis or bristle introduced and following as it will the 

 curvature of the lip-like or nozzle-shaped apex of the lip, and 

 passed down to its nectar-bearing base will inevitably hit the 

 disc, and if detained a moment, will bring the pollinia away 

 when withdrawn. On re-introduction, the pollen-masses will 

 not pass down to the stigma, but lodge on the upper side of 

 the column, from which they were taken. But on looking into 

 older flowers of the same spike, still fresh and good, whether 

 their pollen-masses have been extracted or not, the stigma is 

 in full view, the summit of the column being now turned some- 

 what upward and backward ; and there is now room enough be- 

 tween it and the lip, for the pollen to pass ; indeed, now the pol- 

 len-masses will regularly hit the stigma." Bees proceed, there- 

 fore, in visiting these flowers just as they do when visiting the 

 Ladies'-Tresses. The description of the fertilization of G. repens y 

 I should have said before, agrees with that of G.pubescens. 



Darwin again says : " In no other member of the Neottieae 

 (the tribe to which Goodyera and Spiranthes belong), ob- 

 served by me is there so near an approach to the formation of 

 a true stalk, and it is curious that in this genus, Goodyera, alone, 

 the pollen-grains cohere in large packets, as in the Ophrese " 

 (the tribe containing with us Orchis and Habenaria). " In 

 the rostellum being supported by sloping sides, which wither 

 when the viscid disc is removed — and in the existence of a 

 membranous cup or clinandrum between the stigma and 

 anther — and in some other respects, we have a clear affinity 

 with Spiranthes. Goodyera probably shows us the state of 

 the organs in a group of Orchids, now mostly extinct, but the 

 parents of many living descendants." In the chapter entitled, 

 " Gradation of Organs," he traces the development of the 

 caudicle or stem of the pollen-mass in the different genera. 

 "As I find that chloroform has a peculiar and energetic action 

 on the caudicles of all Orchids, and likewise on the glutinous 



