24 THE FOREST 



in themselves. But an added attraction in these 

 orchids is their form — ^the curvature of their sepals 

 and petals, and the wonderful little pitchers and 

 cups and lips and tongues which an orchid exhibits. 

 And the form is no mere geometrical pattern of 

 lines and curves. It is obviously an ingenious con- 

 trivance devised for some special purpose. That 

 purpose we now know to be the attraction of insects, 

 who in sucking the orchid's honey will unconsciously 

 carry on their wings or backs the flower's pollen to 

 fertilise another orchid. Though whether the insect 

 in the long centuries by probing at the orchid has 

 forced it to adapt itself to it, or whether the flower 

 has forced the insect to adapt itself to the flower, 

 or whether — as seems most likely — a process of 

 mutual adaptation has been going on century by 

 century, and the flower and insect have been 

 gradually adapting themselves to one another, is 

 still a matter of discussion among naturalists. 



We cannot gather an orchid of any kind without 

 marvelling at its intricate construction. And when 

 we are looking at the orchid in its natural surround- 

 ings in the forest itself and see the enormous 

 numbers and the immense variety, in size and form 

 and habits, of the insects around the orchid, and 

 think how the orchid has to select its own particular 

 species of insect and cater for that, and the insect 

 among all the flowers has to select the particular 

 species of orchid ; and how the insect, whether 

 butterfly or bee or moth or gnat or ant, or any other 

 of the numerous kinds of insect, and the orchid 

 have to adapt themselves to each other — we see how 

 marvellous the mutual adaptation of flower to insect 



