62 OUR NATIVE ORCHIDS 



watch closely as the humming rover sips from the next 

 flower, on seeing the tip of that club so tilted, strike directly 

 against the stigma, or fertilising surface, just above the 

 opening of the nectary! The flower is thus fertilised and 

 will mature its seeds. 



" The flowers are frequented by several kinds of flying 

 insects, but this little day-flying sphinx is one of the most 

 common insects, and the very conformation of the orchid- 

 would indicate, from its slender tube and the distance of the 

 nectar from the orifice, an adaptation to the long, slender 

 tongues of moths and butterflies. I have never happened to 

 see a bee upon this orchid, and I doubt whether the insect 

 could reach the nectar, unless, perhaps, through the 

 external puncture of some bumblebee, which insect 

 has a wellknown trick of cutting matters short and 

 saving itself trouble by biting through the honey tube from 

 the outside. 



" These experiments with the orchid may be tried by 

 any one. The drawings herewith given were made from 

 an actual specimen of the insect, which suffered martyrdom 

 in the cause. You may observe the appearance of an 

 insect's tongue after searching a few nectaries. It was 

 interesting also to notice the sagacity of a diminutive spider 

 that seemed to know the attraction of these honey tubes, and 

 had spread its web among the blossoms. Its meshes were 

 sprinkled with minute insects, among which I discovered one 

 rash atom with a club-shaped appendage as large as its 

 body firmly attached to the top of its head." 



