80 VEGETABLE MIMICRY 



you, what a cunning plan has been resorted to in order 

 to secure their privacy. No bee will enter a flower 

 in which another bee is already at work ; so, to protect 

 the entrance, the lip of the flower has been enlarged 

 into a process exactly resembling the business end of a 

 bee (hi the Fly Orchis it resembles the hind-quarters 

 of a fly). To the Spider Orchis (Ophrys aranifera), 

 another British species, it seems to have occurred how 

 a still more violent shock might be administered to the 

 nerves of troublesome insect callers, so it displays at its 

 front door the likeness of a large spider. 



Some of us are vain enough to imagine that the 

 fragrance of flowers was invented for the special grati- 

 fication of the senses of man, though the true object 

 seems to be the attraction of insect visitors. The per- 

 fume is generally agreeable, but by no means always. 

 Certain plants which covet the presence of carrion- 

 loving flies emit odours most revolting to human 

 nostrils. The giant Rafflesia, with flowers fully a yard 

 in diameter, stinks like putrescent meat, thereby 

 attracting swarms of flies. The Rafflesia is a tropical 

 plant; but some forms of Arum, notably Arum 

 dracunculus and crinitum, which practise a similar 

 form of deception, may be grown in English gardens. 

 The last-named is probably the most hideous flower in 

 existence, for which reason, perhaps, it is seldom seen 

 in this country. It resembles a gaping wound, lurid 

 with gangrene, nearly a foot long. The fraud is 

 thoroughly effective ; I have seen the flowers of Arum 

 crinitum in my garden just as completely fly-blown as 



