A FEW NATIVE ORCHIDS 1 73 



thus: what need to ask the reason why?" — it has 

 become a part of our inspiring heritage, a reason- 

 able, logical, comprehensible result, a manifesta- 

 tion of a beautiful divine scheme, and is thus an 

 ever-present witness and prophet of divine care 

 and supervision. 



The flower of to-day ! What an inspiration to 

 our reverential study ! What a new revelation is 

 borne upon its perfume ! Its forms and hues, 

 what invitations to our devotion ! This spot 

 upon the petal ; this peculiar quality of perfume 

 or odor; this fringe within the throat; this curv- 

 ing stamen ; this slender tube ! What a cate- 

 chism to one who knows that each and all repre- 

 sent an affinity to some insect, towards whose 

 vital companionship the flower has been adapting 

 itself through the ages, looking to its own more 

 certain perpetuation ! 



The great Linnaeus would doubtless have 

 claimed to "know" the "orchid," which perhaps 

 he named. Indeed, did he not "know" it to the 

 core of its physical, if not of its physiological, be- 

 ing.? But could he have solved the riddle of the 

 orchid's persistent refusal to set a pod in the 

 conservatory } Could he have divined why the 

 orchid blossom continues in bloom for weeks and 

 weeks in this artificial glazed tropic — perhaps 



