blossom Hosts and Insect Guests 



Fig. 



the anther, which his. thorax has now encountered. 

 A strange etiquette this of the cypripedium, which 

 speeds its parting guest with a sticky plaster smeared 

 all over its back. As the insect works its way 

 beneath the viscid contact, the anther is seen 



to be drawn out- 



1^^ ward upon its 

 '^-U hinge, and its yel- 

 \:X\ lo^^' contents are 

 spread upon the 

 insect's back (Fig. 

 5), verily like a 

 plaster. 



Catching our bee before he has a chance to 

 escape with his generous floral compliments, we 

 unceremoniously introduce him into another cypri- 

 pedium blossom, to which, if he were more oblig- 

 ing, he would naturally fly. He loses no time in 

 profiting by his past experience, and is quickly 

 creeping the gauntlet, as it were, or braving the 

 needle's eye of this narrow passage. His pollen- 

 smeared back is soon crowding beneath the 

 overhanging stigma again, whose forward-pointed 

 papillae scrape off a portion of it (Fig. 4), thus 

 insuring the cross-fertilising of the flower, the 

 bee receiving a fresh effusion of cypripedium 



164 



