UP IN THE TREES. 207 



point to which the lowest flower-bud is attached 

 turns outward a little, and the pedicel gradually 

 changes its direction from perpendicular to an 

 angle of forty-five degrees. Meanwhile the second 

 bud has developed its own stalk which takes the 

 opposite direction, thus forming two lines of a 

 triangle with buds at the bases. Now the two 

 unopened flowers stand well away from each other, 

 and the plant seems measuring the proper distance 

 which will allow of their opening without standing 

 in the way of each other. This object having 

 been attained almost to a line's-breadth and the 

 buds of their full size, you come down one fine 

 morning to be astonished at the transformation. 

 The tissues which swathed the foot have bent 

 back and revealed a pretty fairy cup into which 

 drips at intervals from two horn-like processes 

 above, tiny drops of nectar. 



Darwin has described a few of the peculiar con- 

 trivances by which orchids are fertilised, and some 

 of his deductions from the conformation of their 

 parts drawn without actual observation of the 

 insects at work show the marvellous insight of a 

 great mind. But how he would have delighted in 

 seeing the insects at work before his very eyes ! 

 To read of the fertilisation of the Coryanthes or 

 Catasetum is one thing, to observe it is another. 



