ORCHIS. 



71 



point of your needle carefully you may remove the con- 

 tents of each cell in a mass. These pollen-masses are of 

 the form shown in Fig. 93. The grains are kept together 

 by a fine tissue or web, and the slender stalk, upon which 

 each pollen-mass is raised^ is attached by its lower end 

 to a sticky disk on the front of the stigma just above the 

 mouth of the spur. Jnsects, in their efforts to reach the 

 honey, bring their heads in contact with these disks, and, 

 when they fly away, carry the pollen-masses with them 

 and deposit them on the stigma of the next flower visited. 

 In fact, it is difficult to see how, without the aid of 

 insects, flowers of this sort could be fertilized atall. 



SHOWY ORCHIS. 



93. Showy Orchis is a representative of - the va.st 

 Order Orch'idacem, the members of which are chiefly 

 tropical. Some of our handsomest Canadian wild flow- 

 ers, however, belong to it, such as the Lady's Slipper, 

 the Rattlesnake Plantain, the beautiful little Calypso, 

 and the Habenarias. Most of our orchids will be found 

 in low and wet situations, and thejr flower ratljer early 



