A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS 209 



served these facts in boyhood. The inference, of 

 course, was that some insect had been guilty of 

 the mutilation ; but not until I read Darwin's de- 

 scription of the cross -fertilization of this species 

 did I realize the full significance of these telltale 

 evidences of the escape of the imprisoned insect. 

 Since that time, many years ago, I have often sat 

 long and patiently in the haunt of the cypripe- 

 dium awaiting a natural demonstration of its 

 cross -fertilization, but as yet no insect has re- 

 warded my devotion. 



At length, in hopelessness of reward by such 

 means, I determined to see the process by more 

 prosaic methods. Gathering a cluster of the 

 freshly opened flowers, which still retained their 

 pollen, I took them to my studio. I then cap- 

 tured a bumblebee, and forcibly persuaded him to 

 enact the demonstration which I had so long 

 waited for him peaceably to fulfil. Taking him 

 by the wings, I pushed him into the fissure by 

 which he is naturally supposed to enter without 

 persuasion. He was soon within the sac, and the 

 inflexed wings of the margin had closed above 

 him, as shown in section, Fig. 17. He is now en- 

 closed in a luminous prison, and his buzzing pro- 

 tests are audible and his vehemence visible from 



the outside of the sac. Let us suppose that he 

 14 



