MOORLAND IDYLLS. 



he visits. But if you want to see exactly 

 how this pretty little drama of plant life 

 is enacted, you need not wait, as I have 

 often done, silent on the heath for half an 

 hour together, till some blustering bumble 

 bee bustles in, all importance. It suffices 

 for demonstration just to pick a spike and 

 insert into the mouth of the honey-spur a 

 stem of grass, which does duty for the bee's 

 head and proboscis, when straightway "the 

 figures will act," as they say on the penny- 

 in-the-slot machines, and the pollen-masses 

 will gum themselves by automatic action to 

 the imaginary insect. 



The reason for this curious and highly 

 advanced device is that orchids are among 

 the plants most absolutely specialized for 

 insect-fertilization. Most species of orchid, 

 in fact, can never set their seeds at all 

 without the intervention of these flying 

 " marriage priests," as Darwin quaintly 

 called them. If left to themselves, the 

 flowers must wither on their virgin thorn 

 188 



