278 SYMBIOSIS 



of the " attractions " they offer, so much so as to cause some 

 plants to be neglected or avoided by the better classes of insects, 

 which are attracted, we may assume, by superior offerings else- 

 where. And he shows further that sometimes the contrivances 

 in one and the same flower are contradictory, i.e., they are partly 

 meant for cross- and partly for self -fertilisation ; this, in my 

 opinion, pointing to a deep-seated socio-physiological conflict 

 and a deterioration, whilst, according to Darwin, it renders such 

 cases " perplexing in an unparalleled degree." 



Starting with the Ophreae, he tells us that " Neotinea (Orchis) 

 intacta, a very rare British plant, produces seeds without the 

 aid of insects, the plant apparently being self-fertilising," and 

 pro tanto, so we must conclude, according to his own aphorism, 

 the poorer in vitality and survival-capacity. 



Here then we have evidence of sociological, combined with 

 physiological, retrogression owing to failure of Norm-Symbiosis. 

 Nor does the substitution of fungal Symbiosis offer adequate 

 compensation for the losses so entailed. 



Again, Orchis fusca offers a case of imperfect fertilisation, and 

 Darwin suspects that the species is so rare in Britain " from not 

 being sufficiently attractive to insects, and to its not producing 

 a sufficiency of seed," which again shows socio-physiological 

 inferiority, and may serve as an illustration of the truth that you 

 cannot serve two masters at the same time, and, further, that it 

 is better for an organism to comply with high rather than with 

 low sociological conditions. 



Orchis latifolia and Morio seem to provide a. case of " sham- 

 nectar-producers " termed " Scheinsaftblumen " by the 

 excellent Sprengel, to whom Darwin here again pays a high tribute 

 a " gigantic imposture," if true, as Darwin says. Such " sham- 

 nectaries," however, he thinks to exist more probably in the case 

 of Ophrys muscifera, the Fly Orchis, with its inconspicuous and 

 scentless flowers, all of which, again, points to a decay of Norm- 

 Symbiosis owing to a deficiency of service. 



Again, Orchis pyramidalis often produces monstrous flowers 

 without a nectary, or with a short and imperfect one ? and the 

 better class of insects, it appears, show little gusto for visiting 

 such " acromegalic " flowers. As regards Orchis pyramidalis and 

 the allied 0. maculata, Darwin further states : " We may therefore 

 safely conclude that the nectaries of the above-named orchids 

 neither in this country nor in Germany ever contain nectar." 



