CORALLORHIZA 137 



from the twisted ovaries after the blossoms are gone, are 

 more attractive. But with a good magnifying glass the 

 flowers of the Coralroot show spots and ridges, a notched 

 lip and a curved column, where stigma and stamens are 

 combined in a mechanism as interesting as in any of the 

 orchids, to protect first and then to distribute the pollen. 



In all our species the sepals and petals are about the 

 same length; but in none except Corallorhiza multiflora is 

 there any spur manifest. In the others there is a short sac 

 that adheres to the ovary like a little ridge at the point where 

 the spur usually swings free. Inside of the minute flower a 

 magnifying glass shows a column that lies nearly free from 

 the flower, and that is slightly incurved (Plate LI., Fig. 2). 

 The anther lies at the end of the column and has a lid which 

 claps close over the pollen grains, as the insect thrusts its 

 tongue down the very small narrow throat of a blossom, but 

 the slightest touch as of the drawing back of the insect's 

 tongue snaps it back and often knocks it off, and out fall four 

 soft, waxy pollen masses, in two pairs (Plate LI., Fig. 4). 



On the under surface of the column the stigma lies in a 

 slightly hollowed place (Plate LI., Fig. 3), and there the 

 pollen is deposited as the insect flies to the first more mature 

 and more widely opened flower. The transferring of the 

 pollen is due to its own powdery, waxy quality. There are 

 no stalks with adhesive discs as in the Habenaria, and no 

 connecting tissue. But the work of fertilisation seems to be 

 thoroughly carried on. Mr. Gibson examined four plants 

 in blossom and found that the lid that protects the pollen 



