A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS 1/3 



thus: what need to ask the reason why?" it has 

 become a part of our inspiring heritage, a reason- 

 able, logical, comprehensible result, a manifesta- 

 tion of a beautiful divine scheme, and is thus an 

 ever-present witness and prophet of divine care 

 and supervision. 



The flower of to-day ! What an inspiration to 

 our reverential study ! What a new revelation is 

 borne upon its perfume ! Its forms and hues, 

 what invitations to our devotion ! This spot 

 upon the petal ; this peculiar quality of perfume 

 or odor; this fringe within the throat; this curv- 

 ing stamen ; this slender tube ! What a cate- 

 chism to one who knows that each and all repre- 

 sent an affinity to some insect, towards whose 

 vital companionship the flower has been adapting 

 itself through the ages, looking to its own more 

 certain perpetuation ! 



The great Linnaeus would doubtless have 

 claimed to "know" the "orchid," which perhaps 

 he named. Indeed, did he not " know " it to the 

 core of its physical, if not of its physiological, be- 

 ing? But could he have solved the riddle of the 

 orchid's persistent refusal to set a pod in the 

 conservatory ? Could he have divined why the 

 orchid blossom continues in bloom for weeks and 

 weeks in this artificial glazed tropic perhaps 



