THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND 45 
the pollinium from this side. “If the insect then went to the 
mouth of the true nectary ” this pollinium would not have had 
time to be depressed and to hit the stigma, so that there would 
be no self-fertilization. ‘The insect would then probably suck 
the exposed drop of nectar on the other side of the lip, and 
perhaps get another pollinium attached to its head; it would 
thus be considerably delayed by having to visit three nectaries. 
It would then visit other flowers on the same plant and after- 
ward flowers on a distinct plant, and by this time the pollen- 
masses will have undergone the movement of depression and 
be in a proper position for effecting cross-fertilization. The 
secretion of nectar at three separate points—the wide distance 
of the two discs, and the slow downward movement of the 
stem are all correlated for the same purpose of cross-fertiliza- 
tion.” 
In some papers on The Colors of Flowers published in Nature 
during July and August, 1882, Mr. Grant Allen endeavors to 
prove that all flowers were originally yellow, and that highly 
modified ones, like those of the Orchis family, changed this prim- 
itive color for more decided tints to attract the highest forms 
of insect life; and finding a number of examples of flowers more 
or less green, such as the European Habenarta viridis, he infers 
that they have begun “to degenerate;” have found, that 
is, that the bright colors did not serve them as well as the 
original yellow, and are working back through the intermediate 
green. 
Noone now holds the opinion of some old writers on Orchids, 
that flowers shaped like bees, flies, etc., were formed for the ex- 
press purpose of attracting these insects, but that certain colors 
are more attractive than othersis a well settled point. Sir John 
Lubbock considers blue the most attractive; Muller states that 
in the Alps it is yellow rather than white. An article in Vature 
(March 22, 1883) gives abstracts from papers read before a meet- 
ing of the Linnzan Society, from which I have made the follow- 
