Chap. II. OPHKYS APIFERA. 55 



From what I had then seen of otlier Orchids, I 

 was so much surprised at the self-fertilisation of this 

 species, that I examined during many years, and asked 

 others to examine, the state of the pollen-masses in 

 many hundreds of flowers, collected in various parts of 

 England. The particulars are not worth detailing; 

 but I may give as an instance, that Mr. Farrer 

 found in Surrey that not one flower out of 106 

 had lost both pollinia, and that only three had lost 

 a single one. In the Isle of Wight, Mr. More 

 examined 136 flowers, and of these the very unusual 

 number of ten had lost both, and fourteen had lost 

 one; but then he found that in eleven cases the 

 caudicles had been gnawed through apparently by 

 snails, the discs still remaining in their pouches ; so 

 that the pollinia had not been carried away by insects. 

 In some few cases, also, in which I found the pollinia 

 removed, the petals were marked with the slime of 

 snails. Nor must we forget that a blow from a 

 passing animal, and possibly heavy storms of wind 

 might occasionally cause the loss of one or both 

 pollinia. 



During most years the pollen-masses of the many 

 hundred flowers which were examined, adhered with 

 the rarest exceptions to the stigma, with their discs still 

 enclosed within the pouches. But in the year 1868, 

 from some cause the nature of which I cannot conjecture, 

 out of 116 flowers gathered in two localities in Kent, 

 seventy -five retained both pollinia in their cells ; ten 

 had one pollinium, and only thirty-one had both 

 adhering to the stigma. Long and often as I have 

 watched plants of the Bee Ophrys, I have never seen 

 one visited by any insect.* Eobert Brown imagined 



• Mr. Gerard E. Smith, in his 'Catalogue of Plants of S. Kent, 



