The Young Queens 



by the genius that some of our humblest 

 flowers display in contriving that the visit 

 of the bee shall infallibly procure them 

 the crossed fertilisation they need. See 

 the marvellous fashion in which the Or- 

 chis Moris, our humble country orchid, 

 combines the play of its rostellum and 

 retinacula ; observe the mathematical and 

 automatic inclination and adhesion of its 

 poUinia ; as also the unerring double see- 

 saw of the anthers of the wild sage, which 

 touch the body of the visiting insect at a 

 particular spot in order that the insect 

 may, in its turn, touch the stigma of the 

 neighbouring flower at another particular 

 spot ; watch, too, in the case of the Pedi- 

 cularis Sylvatica, the successive, calculated 

 movements of its stigma; and indeed the 

 entrance of the bee into any one of these 

 three flowers sets every organ vibrating, 

 just as the skilful marksman who hits the 

 black spot on the target will cause all the. 

 285 



