108 THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 
a little milky adhesive fluid exudes. The fissure runs up the 
whole length of the rostellum from the stigma beneath to the 
summit: at the summit, the fissure bifurcates, runs down the 
back of the rostellum on each side and round the stern of the 
boat-formed disc. Hence after this splitting action the boat- 
formed disc lies quite free, but imbedded in a fork in the ros- 
tellum. When a bristle is laid for two or three seconds in the 
furrow of the rostellum, and the membrane has consequently 
become fissured, the viscid matter within the boat-formed disc, 
which lies close to the surface, and indeed slightly exudes, is 
almost sure to glue the disc longitudinally to the bristle, and 
both are withdrawn together, and the two sides of the rostel- 
lum are left sticking up like a fork. This is the common con- 
dition of the flowers after they had been open a day or two 
and have been visited by insects. The fork soon withers. 
‘Long before the flower expands, the anther-cells, which are 
pressed against the back of the rostellum, open in their upper 
part so that the included pollen-masses come into contact with 
the back of the disc. The projecting ends of the threads unit- 
ing the leaves of pollen (which in Ophrys become true stalks 
or caudicles), then became firmly attached to rather above the 
middle part of the back of the disc. The anther-cells after- 
ward open lower down, and their membranous walls contract 
and become brown; so that by the time the flower is fully ex- 
panded, the pollen-masses lie almost naked, their bases (thick 
ends) resting in a little cup formed by the withered anther-cell 
and protected on each side by a membrane which extends 
from the edges of the stigma to the filament (stalk) of the 
anther,” and forms another cup or “clinandrum.” These 
membranous sides of the clinandrum are thought to be the 
rudiments of the two anthers which are seen in a developed 
state in Cypripedium, only. “These rudiments aid their 
brother anther.” 
‘The lip is channelled down the middle; the nectar is col- 
