TJie Ways of the Orchids. 391 



new wonders. The Listera ovata, or " Tway-blade," derives 

 its English and most expressive name, from the singular cleft 

 form of the labellum. In this tribe " the pollen grains are at- 

 tached together in the usual manner by a few elastic threads; but 

 the threads are weak, and large masses of pollen can be easily 

 broken off." The rostellum, according to Dr. Hooker, is inter- 

 nally divided into a series of little chambers (loculi) which con- 

 tain and shoot out drops of viscid matter. It is, in fact, a 

 vegetable spring-gun, and the moment it is touched, off goes 

 the sticky shot, carrying with it the pollen it catches in its way. 

 (C As the pointed tips of the loose pollinia," says Dr. Darwin, 

 ( ' lie on the crest of the rostellum, they are always caught by 

 the exploded drop. I have never once seen this fail. So rapid 

 is the explosion, and so viscid the fluid, that it is difficult to 

 touch the rostellum with a needle quickly enough not to catch 

 the pollinia already attached to the partially hardened drop." 

 In two or three seconds the cement hardens, and the pollen 

 mass is securely fixed to the object which this vegetable artil- 

 lery has assailed. 



We have thus given a very faint idea of the ways of the 

 British orchids. Of their splendid foreign relatives we must 

 not now speak, nor anticipate the delight which the student 

 will experience in reading Mr. Darwin's book. Such themes 

 remind us of the beautiful picture given by Longfellow, in his 

 Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz, where, reverting to the infancy of 

 the great philosopher, he makes ' ' Nature, the old nurse," take 

 the child upon her knee — 



Saying : " Here is a story-book 

 Thy Father hath written for thee. 



" Come wander with me, she said, 

 Into regions yet untrod, 

 And read what is still unread 

 In the manuscript of God. 



" And he wandered away and away, 

 With Nature, the dear old nurse, 

 Who sang to him night and day 

 The rhymes of the Universe. 



" And whenever the way seemed long, 

 Or his heart began to fail, 

 She would sing a more wonderful song, 

 Or tell a more wonderful tale." 



These " wondrous tales" become more wonderful when 

 science endeavours to explain the enigmas which they present. 

 Most botanists would agree with Darwin in tracing the relation 

 which the various parts of the orchids bear to those of ordi- 

 nary plants. The science of homology, as he tells us, " clears 

 away all mist from such terms as the scheme of nature, ideal 



