284 FERTILIZATION OF FLOWERS BY INSECTS. 
place while the remaining twelve no longer had any. Two had a 
couple of pollen-masses stuck upon the edge of the stigma, and 
three were without any pollen-masses at all though the stigma was 
devoid of pollen. Thus at seven o’clock in the morning the fecun- 
dated flowers were in the ratio of two and one-half to one hundred, 
and at five o’clock in the evening the ratio had reached fourteen 
to one hundred. 
Thus the conclusions of Darwin are fully confirmed by my ob- 
servations. The bees must seek something in the spur of the flow- 
er or else they would not stop to visit them repeatedly. Since 
the honey is not free in the interior of the spur but is contained 
between its inner and outer membranes, the insects have to pierce 
this latter, which is very delicate and cannot offer the least difficul- 
ty.* Direct observation has shown that a stay of three or four sec- 
F 
” die fi would lead me to different seoda 
from those of Darwin and “Mill ler. In the ac f the Italia: wormen of Natural Sci- 
ences of Milan (vol. 12, 1869, pt 129) I said; “ a asserted deficiency ve feenndaton, 
together with the phenomenon of the absence of honey in m any spec f Orchis 
i ave - ERER development of Sani il rie apne; formerly honey beating a 
forms and more 
w dry, p 
less near extinct 
There is he ere - a manifest wayne of imperfection or rather, ee degeneration, 
which are very obvious if we compare t anty number of 
capsules in orchids, with the p thors im neva of ‘Spiranthes autumnalis, Loro- 
t flui 
g Or rchids 
and Se, eet ae 
the i 
a secretion of nectar between the inner and 
outer ERA of the spur. pow, ip all my observation, I never could see this 
honey. I indeed saw frequently $ f the spur is meartig 
lar, but when examined by the e found that there is absolutely no trace of 
that glandulose tissue which is a constant characteristic of nectar-producing surfaces. 
Besides, reasons deduced from how analogy are against such a condition of things. 
Gymnadenia and Platanthera, w which are agan rated to them, have a ner spine 
analogous to that of the Orchids, y they 
ular hypodermis, but transudes in a n 
I willingly admit ar some liquid i frequently mit panis in such pores. In the ves- 
cicular parts of plants, e. g., in the s of the i petals of Dielytra, in the 
bladdery fruits of Cation Ves me ee ug gets, of fiqnid a re found, but these are 
only won be of tra népiration, or eae Hmbh; but never honey. It may happen that 
this lymph, which was found in abundance by Darwin in Orchis pyramidalis alone, 
ith $ 8 bosci 
doptera. But on the whole it seems impro) vle pis me that a porta altho 
orem yet not homey Demme, of Orchis is morio, latifolia, maculata, etc., aT siai 
g 
: 
t bees es, according to the positive observations of Miiller, frequent and fecundate 
i ‘seus of Orchis. This fact signifies, according to my view, that they resort to 
to co 
loaded with bundles + payee: they are soon freed by their PRENE from t 
noyance they experie: 
Sprengel calls the ere of Orohis a false nectary. Although in some plants I have 
