114 OUR NATIVE ORCHIDS 



Both Darwin and Asa Gray have described the visits of 

 the bumblebees to these plants. Inside the curved cup of 

 the lip (Fig. 3) lies the nectar, and in the young freshly 

 opened blossom the column is bent forward so that the tip 

 of the disc and of the anther are bowed down close above 

 the lip. The aperture is so narrow that when a bee's 

 tongue is thrust through to seek the nectar it must invariably 

 pass the tip of the disc or shield. When the bee withdraws 

 his tongue the membrane covering the gland at the base 

 of the pollen masses is ruptured, and the viscid gland is 

 exposed. Thus by reason of its stickiness it adheres to 

 the bee's tongue and the pollen masses are withdrawn 

 from their pockets. 



It would seem that in his next visit the bee would 

 land these pollen masses quite ineffectually on the 

 back of the rostellum. But by observing various 

 flowers on the same spike, one will see that the older 

 flowers are more widely open in the throat, and that 

 the whole column is turned somewhat upward and 

 backward, and that the space is quite wide enough to 

 let the bee's tongue, all pollen laden, enter the nectar cup, 

 and in so doing smear the under side of the stigma with its 

 burden. 



The general construction of the column and the threads 

 binding the pollen masses interested Darwin greatly, for he 

 finds in the Goodyera (Peramium) a similarity to several 

 other groups of orchids which lead him to state that " Good- 

 yera probably shows us the state of the organs in a group 



