Chap. I. SECRETION OP NECTAR. • 39 



and I determined to examine 0. morio rigorously. As 

 soon as many ilowers were open, I began to examine 

 them .for twenty-three consecutive days: I looked at 

 them after hot sunshine, after rain, and at all hours : 

 I kept . the spikes in water, and examined them at 

 midnight, and early the next morning: I irritated 

 the nectaries with a bristle, and exposed them to 

 irritating vapours : I took flowers which had lately had 

 their poUinia removed by insects, of which fact I had 

 independent proof on one occasion by finding grains 

 of some foreign pollen within the nectary ; and 1 took 

 other flowers, which judging from their position on the 

 spike, would soon have had their poUinia removed ; 

 but the nectary was invariably quite dry. After the 

 publication of the first edition of this work, I one 

 day saw various kinds of bees visiting repeatedly the 

 flowers of this same Orchid, so that this was evidently 

 the proper time to examine their nectaries ; but I failed 

 to detect under the microscope even the minutest drop 

 of nectar. So it was with the nectaries of 0. maculata 

 at a time when I repeatedly saw flies of the genus 

 Empis keeping their proboscides inserted into them 

 for a considerable length of time. Orchis pyramidalis 

 was examined with equal care with the same result, 

 for the glittering points within the nectary were abso- 

 lutely dry. We may therefore safely conclude that 

 the nectaries of the above-named Orchids neither in 

 this country nor in Germany ever contain nectar. 



Whilst examining the nectaries of 0. morio and 

 maculata, and especially of 0. pyramidalis and hircina, 

 I was surprised at the degree to which the inner and 

 outer membranes forming the tube or spur were sepa- 

 rated from -each other, — also at the delicate nature of 

 the inner membrane, which could be penetrated very 

 easily,— and, lastly, at the quantity of fluid contained 



