18 



OPHRE^. 



Chap. II. 



apart, and project over the stigma ; and if any object 

 is gently pushed against one of them, the pouch is 

 depressed and the viscid ball together with the pol- 

 linium adheres to it and is easily removed. 



The structure of the flower leads me to believe that 

 small insects (as we shall see in the case of Listera) 

 crawl up the labellum to its base, and that in bending 

 their heads downwards, so as to puncture and suck, or 

 only to examine one of the small shining protuberances, 

 they push against the pouch, and a pollinium is attached 

 to their heads ; they then fly to another flower, and 

 there bending down in a similar manner, the attached 

 and doubly-bent pollinium, after the movement of 

 depression, strikes the sticky stigmatic surface, and 

 leaves pollen on it. Under the next species we shall 

 see reason for believing that the natural double cur- 

 vature of the caudicle compensates for its slight power 

 of movement, compared with that in all the species of 

 Orchis. 



That insects visit the flowers of the Fly Ophrys 

 and remove the pollinia, though not efl'ectually or suifi- 



