The Purple-Fringed 



AND THE 



Ragged Orchid 



In the common pretty 

 purple - fringed orchid, H. 

 psy codes, whose dense cylin- 

 drical spikes of plumy blos- 

 ^^r^- soms occasionally em- 

 purple whole marshes, the 

 pollen is tucked away in two 

 parallel pouches, one on either 

 id^^F-^ side of the stigma (Fig. i). In 



^ i'^^^ * "^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^y^"^ ^^ sipping 

 butterflies occasionally get their 

 decoration of a tiny golden pollen 

 club, but more frequently their 

 tongues. 

 If, in visiting the purple-fringed orchid, 

 the butterfly should approach directly in 

 front of the flower, as the bee does in the 

 showy ' orchid, he might sip the nectar 

 indefinitely and withdraw his tongue with- 

 out bringing it in contact with the viscid pollen 

 disks. But in the dense crowding of the flowers, 



135 



