tluAP. 1. SECRETION OF NECTAE. 41 



with their much stronger ones, conld penetrate with ease 

 ■ the soft inner membrane of the nectaries of the above- 

 named Orchids. Dr. H. Miiller is also convinced* that 

 insects puncture the thicliened bases of the standard 

 petals of the Laburnum,! and perhaps the petals of 

 some other flowers, so as to obtain the included fluid. 



The various kinds of bees which I saw visiting the 

 flowers of Orchis morio remained for some time with 

 their proboscides inserted into the dry nectaries, and 

 I distinctly saw this organ in constant movement. I 

 observed the same fact with Empis in the case of 0. 

 maeulata ; and on afterwards opening several of the 

 nectaries, I occasionally detected minute brown specks, 

 due as I believe to the punctures niade some time 

 before by these flies. Dr. H. Miiller, who has often 

 watched bees at work on several species of Orchis, the 

 nectaries of which do not contain any free nectar, fully 

 accepts my. view.t On the other hand, Delpino still 

 maintains that Sprengel is right, and that insects are 

 continually deceived by the presence of a nectary, 

 though this contfiins no nectar. § His belief is founded 

 chiefly on a statement by Sprengel that insects soon 

 •find out that it is of no use to visit the nectaries of 

 these orchids, as shown by their fertilising only the 



* ' Die BefruoMung,' &o. p. 235. tjnct case, namely, the presence 

 t Trevirantis confirms (' bot. of nectar in several monocotyle- 

 Zeitung,' 1863, p. 10) a statement donous plants (as described by 

 made by Salisbury, tliat when'the Ad. Brongniart in ' Bull. Soc. Bot. 

 filaments in the flowers of another de France,' torn. i. 1854, p. 75) 

 l^uminous plant; Edwar'dsia, fall between the two walls (^feuillets). 

 off, or when they are cautiously which form the divisions 'of the 

 separated, a large quantity of ovarium. But the nectar in this 

 sweet fluid flows from the points case is conducted to the outside 

 of separation ; and as' beforehand by a channel ; and the secreting 

 there was no trace of any such surface is homologically an ex- 

 fluid, it must have been contained, terior surface, 

 as Treviranus renjarks, vrithin the J ' Die Befruchtung,' &o. p. 84. 

 cellular tissue. I may add an ap- § ' Ult. Osservazioni suUa Di- 

 .parently similar, but really dis- cogamia,' 1875, p. 121'. 



