66 OUR NATIVE ORCHIDS 



but the Pogonias are distinguished by the fact that their 

 sepals and petals are separate, and that the long club-shaped 

 column is free from the lip, while in Arethusa the sepals 

 and petals are joined at the base and the column adheres to 

 the lip. 



The anther has two parallel sacs, each containing a mass 

 of powdery pollen grains, to which no stalk is attached 

 (Plate XXVIII., Figs, i and 2). Over them is fitted a cap or 

 lid that springs back when an insect presses against it in the 

 right way. The stigma, a flattened disc, lies under the 

 anther. The method by which fertilisation takes place in 

 the Pogonias, as well as in Arethusa, is described by Mr. 

 Gibson on page 79. 



The capsule stands erect, and is long and slender and 

 strongly angled. 



The Pogonias and the Arethusa, under which latter name 

 they were formerly classed, form a group to stir the imagin- 

 ation of a philosopher, but not while he is trying the staying 

 powers of a sphagnum bed. Before donning rubber boots 

 to seek these marsh-loving plants, it will interest him to know 

 that Darwin made the group Arethusa a subject of special 

 study, with reference to their special adaptations to cross 

 fertilisation. It would seem as though with them, as with 

 the maidens of royal families, it was more necessary to make 

 elaborate preparations for a suitor than with the commoner 

 flowers, which like the commoner people, have no fear that 

 their families may die out for want of offspring. 



One of the inhabitants of Australia has a cun ed feathered 



