INTELLIGENCE OF FLOWERS 



spreads afar and reveals the presence of the monster. I am 

 selecting and describing this nauseating Orchid because it 

 is fairly common in France, is easily recognized and adapts 

 itself very well, by reason of its height and the distinctness of 

 its organs, to any experiments that one might wish to make. 

 We have only, in fact, to insert the end of a wooden match 

 in the flower and push it carefully to the bottom of the nectary, 

 in order to witness with the naked eye all the successive phases 

 of fertilization. Grazed in passing, the pouch or rostellum 

 sinks down, exposing the little viscid disc (the Loroglossum 

 has only one) that supports the two pollen-stalks. This disc 

 grips the end of the wood violently at once; the two cells 

 that contain the balls of pollen open lengthwise; and, when 

 the match is withdrawn, its tip is firmly capped with two stiff, 

 diverging horns, each ending in a golden ball. Unfortu- 

 nately, we do not here, as in the experiment with the Orchis 

 latifolia, enjoy the charming spectacle afforded by the gradual 

 and precise inclination of the two horns. Why are they not 

 lowered? We have but to push the capped match into a 

 neighbouring nectary to ascertain that this movement would 

 be superfluous, the flower being much larger than that of the 

 Orchis maculata or latifolia and the nectar-horn arranged in 



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