2o8 IN THE GUIANA FOREST. 



When you come down in the morning and see a 

 host of beautiful metallic green and gold bees 

 hovering round the orchids, you know at once that 

 the Coryanthes speciosa which you admired in bud 

 yesterday is now open. How these bees, which 

 never appear at other times, have made the dis- 

 covery it is impossible to tell. There is a slight 

 perfume diffused round the flowers, but it is by no 

 means pungent, nor does it extend to any distance 

 as far as our sense of smell can distinguish. Yet 

 the bees are here buzzing around, creeping under 

 the cap-like appendage of the flower, and then 

 flying off or dropping into the little pool below. 

 Looking inside we see one of them floundering in 

 the shallow liquid, its wings bedraggled, in a mess 

 and unable to extricate itself. It struggles to 

 climb the slippery sides of the cup, but all its 

 attempts being useless, it goes swimming round 

 and round until almost exhausted. Presently, 

 however, it spies a gleam of light coming through 

 a mouth-like slit where the apex of the column 

 approaches the cup but does not actually touch it. 

 The -approach to this slopes upward, and is very 

 slippery, but the insect inserts its fore-legs into two 

 little gaps apparently provided for this purpose 

 and drags its head into the opening. This, how- 

 ever, is too narrow to permit of its exit without 



