32 OPHEE^. Chap. I. 



been starved to death. Both these moths must haye 

 sucked many more than the seven and eleven flowers, 

 of which they bore the trophies, for the earlier at- 

 tached poUinia had lost much of their pollen, showing 

 that they had touched many viscid stigmas. 



The above list proves that many different species 

 of Lepidoptera visit the same kind of Orchis. The 

 Hadena dentina also frequents Habenaria. Probably 

 all the Orchids provided with elongated nectaries 

 are visited indifferently by many kinds of moths. 

 Whether any of the British Orchids are fertilised 

 exclusively by special insects confined to certain 

 localities is very doubtful ; but we shall hereafter see 

 that Epipactis latifolia seems to be fertilised by wasps 

 alone. I have twice observed plants of Oymnadenia 

 conopsea, which had been transplanted into a garden 

 many miles from its native home, with nearly all 

 their pollinia removed. Mr. Marshall of Ely* has 

 made the same observation on similarly transplanted 

 specimens of 0. maculata. On the other hand fifteen 

 plants of Ophrys museifera had not one pollen-mass 

 there removed. Malaxis paludosa was placed in a 

 bog about two miles from that in which it naturally 

 grew ; and it had most of its pollinia immediately 

 removed. 



The list which follows serves to show that insects in 

 most oases perform the work of fertilisation effectually. 

 But the list by no means gives a fair idea how effectu- 

 ally it is done ; for I have often found nearly all the 

 pollinia removed, but kept an exact record only in 

 exceptional cases, as may be seen by the appended 

 remarks. Moreover, in most cases, the pollinia which 



* ' Gardener's Chronicle,' 1861, marks of mine on this subject 

 p. 73. Mr. Marshall's communi- previously published in the ' Gar- 

 cation was in answer to some re- dener's Chronicle,' 1 860, p. 528. 



