m 



Botany and Zoologij. I43 



! are undesigned ? On the supposition that Orchis pyra- 



middis wag independently originated as it is, it would not be credible, nor 



would any one, probably, ever think of raising the question. Although suppo- 



sable, would the absence of design be much less incredible, on the assumption 



that the Orchis we have been considering was the progeny (remote or near) of 



some ancestor which, like several existing Orchises, had the two viscid discs 



inclose apposition, and that the progeny of another, which, like most species, had 



them distinctly separate ? it being premised that both the ancestral forms were 



a? perfect in their structure, and as well adapted to their surroundings, as the 



soecies with which we have compared them actually are. But we have no 



- ro nor particular occasion to reopen this question now. 



■ return to our Orchids. The plan or general structure of the flower is 



^•;ae in all the Ophrydea; but the particular contrivance varies from 



^ to species, ancTfrom one genus to another. One British plant of the 



• the Bee Ophn/s, — so various are the resources of nature— ditfering in 



™.< respect even from its congeners, is adapted for self-fertillization, without 



insect aid. And the way in which the same Orchid-structure ordinarily 



sisted only by a breath of wind, is abundantly curious. 



in the genus Hahenaria, or Platantkera, the anther-cells are more separated 

 and divergent, so that the glanils or viscid discs are carried one to each side of 

 "le broad stigma, and there is nolpouch ; but the sticky disc, in some of our 

 species, looking like a little pearl button, is perfectly naked ; and when the 

 flower-bud opens, stands directly in the way of the head of a moth or bee, 

 thrusting its proboscis into the nectar-bearino- spur. And here the viscidity of 

 the disc, or gland, is beautifully adapted to that state of things. For, although 

 ™lly exposed to the air, instead of setting hard at once, as in Orchis, the disc 

 retains Its viscidity during the whole period of anthesis, awaiting the coming 

 w the insect, and quite sure to stick fast to the side of the face of the first one 

 «at dips its proboscis into the attractive nectary. The closest analogues we 

 Jave of the British Hahenaria chlorantha, so interestingly described by Mr. 

 ^armn, are our Platanthera orbiculata, which is not yet in blossom, and J*. 

 ™0Wri, upon whi~h (as our delighted pupils may testify,) Mr. Darwin s details 

 w the contrivance for the fertilization and pretty sure intercrossing of the in- 

 dividuals of the British species may be verified. It is a pretty experiment 

 «> onng the head of a butterfly or bee into the proper position, and to see how 

 "^ttly the disc on each side attaches itself to the eye of the insect, making the 

 ammal carry off the pollinia upon withdrawal and migration to another blossom, 

 --to see the pollinia turn inwards and downwards by a double movement, each 

 ot about 40 degrees, so tiiat when now applied to the same or another flower, 

 «e pollinia no longer will strike against the anther-cells from which they were 

 mov-r^^'^' ''"^ ^^^^"'^ ^^'^ ^'"^^ stigmatic surface below and between. These 

 ^lonstrated, by afp!yiig"the tip'^^of the^finge? 0" T small slip of glass to the 

 l^fge of the LZ!so^eKir.cL^ the pollinia, and noticing, that the latter 



JJ3raed;ately returned, would be applied to the cells from which they were taken, 

 J."t that, after the lapse of a minute or less, they have so changed their direc- 

 brin' S^* """'^ ^ return of the finger to the same place will pretty surely 



T = ,"^ pollen into contact with the stigma. , . , ^ „ , 



dlZ » ■ P-irticulars our P. Hookeri differs most obviously from^ai«ian« 

 ''^oranthi: itg anther cells are still more widely divergent, and thelabellum is 

 de^'^'i/'^^^^d of being dependent And these two particulars seem as if 

 ^^signedly correlated. The nectary of the British species, with hanging label- 

 Cl Jl'^"'^ accessible by a direct front approach ; and an insect whose face 

 eiA; *^".'^ ^""i extract both of its pollinia, might, in that position, fail to hit 

 auffi! ""^^^^ "^o^e widely separated discs of P. Hooken. But while a moth of 

 Plac. "^"^^ ^0"W Pi-ess down the labellum of the latter, using it as a lading; 

 L . ' ^^^ probably extract both noUinia at once, smaller insects would have 



