26o Flowers and their Pedigrees. 



plant, of course ; but still it costs no more than honey 

 would do, and quite enough remains on the legs and 

 wings of the flies to impregnate their fellow-blossoms 

 on another plant. At last all the pollen is shed 

 and eaten, and then the flies again become anxious 

 to shift their quarters to some more favourable spot, 

 where there is more food to be found, and another 

 drunken orgy to be expected. This time, however, 

 the hairs no longer impede their progress ; they have 

 all shrivelled up meanwhile, and the eel-trap is there- 

 fore now dissolved ; so the flies hurry away once more, 

 covered with the stock of pollen-dust which has been 

 showered down upon them by their late host. 



One might suppose, at first, that after one such 

 experience the flies would studiously avoid cuckoo- 

 pints in future. Nothing of the sort. Experience 

 seems to be thrown away upon insects ; and besides, 

 the little creatures seem actually to enjoy their intoxi- 

 cated revels. Pollen apparently acts upon them as an 

 incentive, exactly as opium acts upon a Chinaman. 

 The first thing they do the moment they are released 

 is to forthwith fly off to the nearest other cuckoo-pint 

 They see a purple, club-shaped spike, somewhere close 

 by, overtopping the folded lips of the green hood, and 

 they make straight for that well-known signpost, as 

 the lordly human race makes for the flaring lights of 



