408 



BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS 



sufficient to bring them in contact. While, therefore, in 

 most species of Orchis and Ophrys self-fertilisation 

 appears to be impossible, in the Bee 

 Orchis it is carefully provided for. 

 Darwin has examined hundreds of 

 flowers, and has never seen reason in a 

 single instance to believe that pollen 

 had been brought from one flower to 

 another ; and he has met with very 

 few cases in which the pollen mass 

 failed to reach its own stigma. He 

 has never seen an insect visit the flowers 

 of this species, and R. Brown suggested 

 that the resemblance of the flower to 

 bees was to deter insects from visiting 

 them. Darwin does not think this 

 probable. Can it be to deter browsing 

 quadrupeds ? He believes also that, 

 though this species habitually fertilises 

 itself, the curious arrangements which 

 it possesses in common with other allied species are of 

 use in securing an occasional cross, even if only at very 

 long intervals. 



Malaxis 



M. paludosa. — One of our smallest Orchids. As 

 already mentioned the labellum is theoretically the 

 upper petal, but assumes the position of a lower lip by 

 the twisting of the ovary. In Malaxis it is in the 

 normal position as an upper lip. That Malaxis has 

 descended from Orchids in which the labellum was 

 below, is, however, shown by the curious fact that it has 

 taken its present place by a double twist, so that it now 

 occupies the position it would have held had there been 

 no twist at all. When ripe, the ovary gradually 

 untwists. The edges of the leaves produce cellular 

 bulbils, hence the leaves if placed in the ground develop 

 new plants. 



Fig. SSZ.—Ophri/s 

 api/era. 



