NEWS OF SPRING 



and damp meadows and has a thyrse of little pink flowers, 

 which bloom in May and June. 



The typical flower of our Orchids represents with some 

 closeness the fantastic, yawning mouth of a Chinese dragon. 

 The lower lip, which is very long, hangs in the form of a 

 jagged or dentate apron, serves as a perch or resting-place for 

 the insect. The upper lip rounds into a sort of hood, which 

 shelters the essential organs ; while, at the back of the flower, 

 beside the peduncle, there falls a kind of spur or long, pointed 

 horn, which contains the nectar. In most flowers, the stigma, 

 or female organ, is a more or less viscid little tuft which, at 

 the end of a frail stalk, patiently awaits the coming of the pol- 

 len. In the Orchid, this traditional installation has altered 

 past recognition. At the back of the mouth, in the place oc- 

 cupied in the throat by the uvula, are two closely-welded 

 stigmata, above which rises a third stigma modified into an 

 extraordinary organ. At its top, it carries a sort of little 

 pouch, or, more correctly, a sort of stoup, which is called the 

 rostellum. This stoup is full of a viscid fluid in which soak 

 two tiny balls whence issue two short stalks laden at their 

 upper extremity with a packet of grains of pollen carefully 

 tied up. 



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