V ^ 



Orchid Blossoms and 



How They Differ 

 From Other Flowers 



The highest types of cross-fertilized flowers 

 are found in this family, wdiich, with few ex- 

 ceptions, has utterly lost, like the milkweed and 

 clover, the power of self-fertilization. What start- 

 ling disclosures are revealed to the inward eye within 

 the hearts of all these strange orchidaceous flowers ! 

 Blossoms whose functions, through long eras of 

 adaptation, have gradually shaped themselves to the 

 forms of certain chosen insect sponsors ; blossoms 

 whose chalices are literally fashioned to bees or but- 

 terflies ; blossoms whose slender, prolonged nectaries 

 mvite and reward the murmuring sphinx-moth alone, 

 the floral throat closely embracing his head while it 



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