Chap. IV. GOODYERA EEPENS. 105 



removed, and the fork-shaped supporting sides of the 

 rostelliim were partially withered. Mr. K. B. Thomson 

 informs me that in the north of Scotland he saw many 

 humble-bees (Bombus pratorum) visiting the flowers 

 with pollen-masses attached to their proboscides. 

 This species grows also in the United States; and 

 Professor Asa Gray* confirms my account of its 

 structure and manner of fertilisation, which is likewise 

 applicable to another and very distinct species, namely, 

 Goodyera puhescens.. 



Goodyera is an interesting connecting link between 

 several very distinct forms. In no other member of 

 the Neottese observed by me is there so near an ap- 

 proach to the formation of a true caudicle ; t and it is 

 curious that in this genus alone the pollen-grains 

 cohere in large packets, as in the Ophrese. If the 

 nascent caudicles had been attached to the lower ends 

 of the poUinia, and they are attached a little beneath 

 their summits, the poUinia would have been almost 

 identical with those of a true Orchis. In the rostellum 

 being supported by sloping sides, which wither when 

 the viscid disc is removed, — in the existence of a 

 membranous cup or clinandrum between the stigma 



* 'Amer. Journal of Science,' bundle of elastic threads, with 



vol. xxxiv. 1862, p. 427. I for- very small and thin packets of 



merly thought that with this plant pollen-grains attached to them 



and Spiranthes, it was the label- and arranged like tiles one over 



lum which moved from the column the other. The two caudieles are 



to allow of the more free entrance united together near their bases, 



of insects ; but Professor Gray is where they are attached to a disc 



convinced that it is the column of membrane lined with viscid 



which moves. matter. From the small size and 



t In a foreign species, Goociyera extreme thinness of the basal 



discolor, sent me by Mr. Bateman, packets of pollen, and from the 



the poUinia approach in structure strength of their attachment to 



still more closely those of the the threads, I believe that they 



Ophrese ; for the poUinia extend are in a functionless condition ; 



into long caudicles, resembling in if so, these prolongations of the 



form those of an Orchis. The poUinia are true caudicles. 

 caudicle is here formed of a 



