262 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [SEPTEMBER, IgIo. 
connection between this extraordinary flower and insects would neces- 
sarily bevery intimate. But the Bee Orchis is a — which has nothing to 
do with insects whatever. It is self-fertilised. 
““ Now, I challenge any Darwinist to explain the colours, markings, and 
shape of the Bee Orchis in accordance with the theory that flowers owe 
their colours, shapes, and markings to insects. If no explanation is forth- 
coming the theory collapses. . 
“Of course, from my point of view, the remarkable resemblance of the 
Bee Orchis to a bee—with wings, antennz, velvety body, and sting 
complete—has a very obvious meaning. The grazing animal does nct wish 
to be stung by a bee, so it leaves the flower alone. This, as I have said, is 
only one of hundreds of instances which could be quoted.” 
To this challenge ‘‘G.G.D.,” the writer of the ‘‘criticism,” replies, 
which is typical of a large family of bee-visited flowers—is adapted to 
fertilisation by insects, and very pertinently asks, ‘‘ But what has the cow 
to do with it?” Concerning the Bee Orchis, he adds: ‘‘ May I say briefly 
that I have never seen a pink-winged bee nor one with a body like the 
flower of a Bee Orchis, and that the alleged sting is not in such a position 
that a cow could possibly see it? I do not suggest that the selection of bees 
has controlled the progress of this flower, and, of course, Mr. Robinson sees 
that if it is like a bee, that serves just as well to keep away the bees which, 
as a self-fertiliser, it would rather be without, as to scare the cows.” 
In the Country Side for August the argument again appears. We are 
told that the Bee Orchis “ is self-fertilised. It is not visited by insects; and 
if it were, it would gain nothing from such visits. How, then, can its 
colours and markings be due to selection by insects? Until this question 
is answered, and there are hundreds of similar questions which might be 
asked—it is not possible for anyone to justify the old belief that the beauty 
of flowers is due to insects.” 
Now there are two or three fallacies in this argument which it may be 
well to point out. In the first place, the flowers of the Bee Orchis must 
occasionally be visited by insects, for in the South of Europe there are 
natural hybrids between O. apifera and O. Scolopax, also between O. apifera 
and O. arachnites, and their occurrence is due to the fact that where allied 
species grow intermixed the insects, not limiting their visits to one par- 
ticular species, transfer the pollinia of one species to the stigma of another, 
and hybridisation is effected. O.arachnites is also a British species, which 
is not self-fertilised, yet its flowers are so similar to those of O. apifera as to 
have been considered a variety of it by some botanists. 
Again, Darwin has shown that in spite of its self-fertilising habit the 
flowers of the Bee Orchis retain the adaptations for cross-fertilisation by 
