The Bee's Tongue 35 



reached out another leg. Then she slowly and thoughtfully 

 emerged, whole and unharmed, with the stamp of the orchid 

 on the top of her back in the form of a large round patch 

 of sticky pollen which she had dragged from the anther 

 under which she had squeezed herself. 



Once out, she tried, unsuccessfully, to brush the pollen 

 from her back, evidently feeling annoyed by it, and then 

 buzzed her way straight to another of the orchids, insin- 

 uated herself into its sac, and when she got ready pulled 

 her plump person successfully through the small opening 

 at the top. 



She bore the seal of the orchid all over the top and sides 

 of her thorax before she was through her depredations 

 on that handful of flowers, and of course in passing under 

 the stigma on her way out must have left enough of her 

 gathered pollen to fertilize the flowers. 



Thus was forever dissipated the fear in at least one 

 mind that the queen bombus is incapable of fertilizing the 

 cypripedium acaule. 



Some of the honey-bees tliat had the run of the window 

 screen also went into the cypripedium flowers through the 

 slit in the sac, but they came out at the top without touch- 

 ing the pollen masses, being too small to fill the necessary 

 space. 



As many of the flowers in the Connecticut woods set no 

 seeds, it is probable that they are not greatly favored by 

 insect visitors in this day and generation, or was this an off 

 season for bumble-bees to favor cypripediums? However 

 that may be, on that particular hillside, in that particular 

 June, the cypripediums were slighted. 



But such is the marvellous number of seeds developed in 

 any one pod that does fulfil its destiny that a few mature 

 pods would be sufficient to seed down the whole country 

 side. 



