CREATION BY LAW. : 271 
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A Case of Orchis-structure explained by Natural | 
Selection. 
' There is a Madagascar Orchis—the Angraecum ses- 
quipedale—with an immensely long and deep nectary. 
How did such an extraordinary organ come to be 
developed? Mr. Darwin’s explanation is this. The 
pollen of this flower can only be removed by the base 
of the proboscis of some very large moths, when trying 
to get at the nectar at the bottom of the vessel. The 
moths with the longest probosces would do this most 
effectually ; they would be rewarded for their long 
tongues by.getting the most nectar ; whilst on the other 
hand, the flowers with the deepest nectaries would be 
the best fertilized by the largest moths preferring 
them. Consequently, the deepest nectaried Orchids 
and the longest tongued moths would each confer on the 
other an advantage in the battle of life. This would 
tend to their respective perpetuation, and to the con- 
stant lengthening of nectaries and probosces. Now 
let it be remembered, that what we have to account 
for, is only the unusual length of this organ. A nec- 
tary is found in many orders of plants and is especially 
common in the Orchids, but in this one case only is 
it more than a foot long. How did this arise? We 
begin with the fact, proved experimentally by Mr. 
Darwin, that moths do visit Orchids, do thrust their 
spiral trunks into the nectaries, and do fertilize them 
by carrying the pollinia of one flower to the stigma of 
another. He has further explained the exact mechanism 
