Botany and Zoology, 427 



Having room for only two or three more brief notes, one of thera shall 

 be upon— 



— Goodyera. "We can only refer our readers to Darwin*s description of 

 G. repens, which is common in all our northern forests. We confirmed 

 before we read Mr. Darwin's conjecture (on p. 114) "that the labellura 

 moves farther from the column in mature flowers, in order to allow in- 

 sects, with the pollina adhering to tiieir heads or probosces, to enter the 

 flowers more freely." Except that, if we mistake not, it is tlie column 

 which clianges its position, rather than the labellum. All freshly-opened 



tip of the disc and of the anther are presented to view as you look into the 

 narrow opening of the flower; and a proboscis or bristle, introduced, and 

 following as it will the curvature of the lip-like or nozzle-shaped apex of 

 the labellum, and passed down to its saccate nectar-bearing base, will 



away when withdrawn. On re-introduction, the pollina will not pass 

 down to the stigma, but lodge on the upper side of the column, from 

 whence they were taken. B'ut on looking into older flowers of the same 

 spike, still fresh and good, and whether their pollina have been extracted 

 or not, the stigma is in full view, the summit of the column (we believe) 

 being now turned somewhat upwards or backwards; and there is now 

 room enough between it and the labellum for the pollinia to pass; indeed 

 now the pollinia will regularly hit the stigma, to which packets of pollen 

 will plentifully adhere. So, as bees, &c. are said to begm at the bottom 

 of a spike and to proceed regularly upwards, the pollen taken by them 

 from the flowers of any spike will never fertilize other flowers of that 

 spike, but will be carried to another plant, where it will fertilize the lower 

 blossoms ready for it,— from which spike in turn pollen will be earned off 

 to fertilize the flowers of a third plant, and so on ! 



Goodyera pnbescens, although specifically quite distmct, accords with 

 G. repens m all the above particulai-s. 



Spiranthes, both cernua and gracilis, confirm Darwin's account: the 

 difference in the position of the parts— the disc and anther presented in 

 the younger, the stigma in the older flowers, just as in Goodyera— ^^ so 

 very striking that we wonder how we overlooked it last year. Here, also, 

 we suspect that it is the column, rather than the labellum, which changes 

 its position, but we have not been able to demonstrate it. 



We are obliged to defer all account of observations upon native Orchids 

 of other tribes, except Cypripedium, upon which we must hazard a few 

 remarks. Mr. Darwin has been able to examine only a few tropical spe- 

 cies, and those incompletely. The North American species and the allied 

 one of Northern Europe would probably have modified his conclusions. 



face (laid bare bv the sphacelation or deliqu 

 i- face of the anther), which is as if freshly coaiea who suckj , 

 i so adhesive that a bodv of small surface brought m contact 

 .M. JouB SCI Second S^ies, Vol. XXXIV, No. m-Nor., 1868. 



