Po^onias and Limodorums 93 



tilized properly, and in turn unlocks her treasure-store 

 as the insect backs off the keel of the pollen mass. 

 Professor Meehan writes that this plant " rarely fails 

 to produce perfect seed-vessels. Yet it is seldom that 

 plants which depend on insects for their supply of 

 pollen, as these are supposed to do, and which are 

 not fertilized by their own pollen, produce seeds from 

 every flower." ' 



It is said that the twisted ovary seen in orchids came 

 about through necessity in fertilization. This has 

 caused, as Darwin says, " the labellura to assume the 

 position of a lower petal, so that insects can easily visit 

 the flower; but from slow changes in the form or posi- 

 tion of the petals, or from new sorts of insects visiting 

 the flowers, it might be advantageous to the plant that 

 the labellum should resume its normal position on the 

 upper side of the flower."^ In the present position 

 of the labellum of Cypripedium we observe the con- 

 venient resting-place for the bee as it alights and de- 

 scends to the interior, where are stored the nectar and 

 attractive colors. The insect must be persevering in- 

 deed to win the soul of the orchids, since Nature has 

 constructed their organs with such care and modifica- 

 tions. The hidden hinge to the cups of pollen — as 

 instanced in the flowers of the Grass-Pink — demon- 

 strates that even the finest hairs and tissues in these 

 plants have their meaning and their values. 



'Thomas Meehan, The Native Flowers and Ferns of the 

 United States, p. 104. 2: 1878. 

 '•' Darwin, Fertilization of Orchids, p. 2S4. 1895. 



