26 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
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insects. Ihe well-known dragon arum 
is a case in point. This plant, a native 
of Southern Europe, and an easy sub- 
ject for the garden, produces giant 
flowers, typical of its kind. These are 
colored on the inside of the spathe with 
a most lurid crimson, very suggestive of 
decaying meat. Moreover, the shining 
black spadix rising from the center of 
the bloom adds yet further to the strik- 
ing appearance of the plant. Just as 
the spathe develops, a most disagree- 
able odor is emitted, strangely sugges- 
tive of rotting flesh. So genuine is this 
illusion that the writer knows of actual 
cases in which the plant has been ban- 
ished from the garden simply because 
the owner could not endure the unpleas- 
ant scent. To the insect world the 
suggestion is no less deceiving, for 
large numbers of flies are attracted to 
the flower in the hope that they may 
be able to feast on the carrion. By an ingenious arrange- 
ment many of them are entrapped for a while, and held cap- 
tive until they have become well dusted with pollen. 
There are perhaps few more wonderful flowers in the 
world than those produced by the South American Aris- 
tolochias; these are so huge as to represent almost the largest 
blooms in the world. Many of the species are authoritatively 
stated to lure insects by means of the resemblance which they 
bear to carrion. In particular A. gigas is strongly suggestive 
of decaying meat, while when the blooms are in perfect con- 
dition they send out an odor so unpleasant that it is difficult 
to stay in a hothouse with them without discomfort. Another 
species of the same genus, .\. tricaudata, is of deep purple 
in the tinting of its flowers, while each blossom has three 
long appendages, giving the appearance of the drippings 
which might arise from a piece of meat suspended in the air. 
All these Aristolochias are visited by large numbers of flies, 
on whose agency the plants largely depend for the cross- 
fertilization of their organs. 
The above examples are extreme instances of the simula- 
tion of carrion by flowers, but there are a very large number 
of plants which produce blossoms smelling suggestively of 
rotten meat. Some species of Iris, although they can not be 
said to resemble carrion in their appearance, are certainly 
very strange in their odor. One of these, common in Europe, 
has been given the name of “roast beef” plant on account of 
its scent, which is said to resemble that of cooked meat. Most 
people would feel, however, that that flower scarcely smells 
of anything so wholesome. As a general rule it will be found 
that the majority of brown or luridly colored flowers give 
Mesembryanthemns truncatum, from South African deserts 
Beetle-Ski seeds: Chelonospermum, from 
Pacific Islands 
January, 1909 
off an odor which is not pleasant to 
human beings, although it must prove 
very attractive to flies. 
A particular phase of plant sim- 
ulation which has never been satis- 
factorily explained is that which is 
quite common among orchids. In these 
cases the whole appearance of the 
flower is suggestive of some insect—to 
quite a remarkable degree in some in- 
stances. It does not seem easy to sug- 
gest any real purpose that could be 
served by this resemblance, and yet 
one can scarcely think it to be acci- 
dental. Probably one of the most 
curious examples is the bee orchis (Or- 
chis apifera), a native of Europe. Any- 
one who knew of this orchid, and came 
across it for the first time, would have 
small difficulty in at once recognizing 
The labellum is of a velvety brown 
variegated with yellow, while the two 
lateral petals might very well serve for the wings of the 
insect. 
Nearly related is the fly orchis, a most singular plant in 
the peculiar form of its flowers. These are somewhat small, 
and in the center of the lip there is a small bluish spot, like 
the body of a fly; the two lateral petals are very slender and 
curiously like the antenne of an insect. The whole illusion 
is very complete, and a casual glance suggests that a few 
flies are hanging on to the stem of some plant which has cast 
its flowers. Of course, among the exotic orchids there are 
many which by their strange shapes suggest some insect or 
other. The New World Catasetums are very curious in this 
respect, and a picture of a spray of bloom which is repro- 
duced very much resembles a number of moths with partly 
closed wings. Other instances might be cited in the orchid 
family of this kind of simulation, and it would be a very 
easy matter to fill pages with descriptions of these weird 
flowers. 
Of course it is freely admitted that in these similarities 
shown by orchid flowers there may be nothing of any mean- 
ing; in the way that they appear to us the likenesses may 
serve no end at all. Nevertheless it is rather significant that 
there should be so many cases of this nature to be found in 
one tribe. It has been hinted that perhaps the special insects 
which the orchids mimic are not desired to visit the flowers. 
Any call is discouraged, by making it appear to passing in- 
sects that the bloom has a visitor already. ‘This certainly 
seems to be rather a far-fetched theory, but it is really impos- 
sible to say that such a state of affairs might not have been 
brought about by means of natural selection. 
w 
Stone mimicry : Mesembryanthemum, from South Africa 
