58 OPHRE^. Chap. II. 



supply of seed; and we have seen with the other 

 British species of Opnrys which cannot fertilise them- 

 selves, how small a proportion of their flowers produce 

 capsules. Judging therefore from the structure of 

 the flowers of 0. apifera, it seems almost certain that 

 at some former period they were adapted for cross- 

 fertilisation, but that failing to produce a sufficiency 

 of seed they became slightly modified so as to fertilise 

 themselves. It is, however, remarkable on this view, 

 that none of the parts in question show any tendency 

 to abortion — that in the several and distant countries 

 which the plant inhabits, the flowers are still con- 

 spicuous, the discs still viscid, and the caudicles still 

 retain the power of movement when the discs are ex- 

 posed to the air. The metallic points at the base of 

 the labellum are however smaller than in the other 

 species ; and if these serve to attract insects, this dif- 

 ference is of some signification. As it can hardly be 

 doubted that 0. apifera was at first constructed so as 

 to be regularly cross-fertilised, it may be asked will it 

 ever revert to its former state ; and if it does not so 

 revert, will it become extinct ? These questions cannot 

 be answered, any more than in the case of those plants 

 which are now propagated exclusively by buds, stolons, 

 &c., but which produce flowers that rarely or never set 

 any seed ; and there is reason to believe that a sexual 

 propagation is closely analogous to long-continued 

 self-fertilisation. 



Finally Mr. Moggridge has shown that in North 

 Italy Oplirys apifera, aranifera, arachnites, and scolopax 

 are connected by so many and such close intermediate 

 links,* that all seem to form a single species in 



♦ These forms are illustrated by * Verhandlungen der Kaiserl. 



beautiful coloured drawings in Leop. Car. Akad.' (Nov. Act.), 



tlie ' Flora of Mentone,' pi. 43 to torn. xxxv. 1869 

 45: and in his memoir in the 



