THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
103 
flowers of any kind of plant are for a 
perpetuity of generations fertilized by 
their own pollen. And what are we to 
say with respect to the sticky glands of 
the Bee Orchis, the use and efficiency of 
which glands in all other British Orchids 
are so manifest? Are we to conclude 
that this one species is provided with 
these organs for no use? I cannot think 
so ; but would ratl’er infer that, during 
some years, or in some other districts, 
insects do visit the Bee Orchis and 
occasionally transport pollen from one 
flower to another, and thus give it the 
advantage of an occasional cross. We 
have seen that the Fly Orchis is not in 
this part of the country by any means 
sufficiently often visited by insects, though 
the visits of insects are indispensable to 
its fertilization. So with the Bee Orchis, 
though its self-fertilization is specially 
provided for, it may not exist here under 
the most favourable conditions of life; 
and in other districts or during particular 
seasons it may be visited by insects, and 
in this case, as its pollen-masses are fur- 
nished with sticky glands, it would almost 
certainly receive the benefit of an occa- 
sional cross-impregnation. It is this 
curious apparent contradiction in the 
structure of the Bee Orchis — one part, 
namely, the sticky glands, being adapted 
for fertilization by insect agency — ano- 
ther part, namely, the natural falling 
out of the pollen-masses, being adapted 
for self-fertilization without insect agency 
— which makes me anxious to hear what 
happens to the pollen-masses of the Bee 
Orchis in other districts or parts of Eng- 
land. I should be extremely obliged to 
any one who will take the trouble to 
observe this point, and to communicate 
the result to the ‘ Gardener’s Chronicle ’ 
or to me. Chaeles Daewin. 
Dotvn, Bromlei/, Kent. 
Do the Tineina or other small Moths 
suck Flowers, and if so what Flowers P — 
I once saw several individuals of a small 
moth apparentli/ eating the pollen of the 
Mercurialis ; is this physically possible ? 
I have during several years watched the 
smaller clovers, such as Trifolium pro- 
cumbens, and the Vida hirsuta which has 
such extremely minute flowers, and I 
never saw a bee visit them. I am, how- 
ever, aware from experience that it is 
very difficult to assert that bees do not 
visit any particular kind of plant. As 
Mr. F. Bond informs me that he has 
often seen moths visiting papilionaceous 
flowers, even such small ones as those of 
the trefoil, it has occurred to me that 
small moths may suck the flowers of 
T. procuinbens and of V. hirsuta. From 
analogy we must believe that the smaller 
clovers secrete nectar; and it does not 
seem probable that the nectar wonld be 
wasted. I should esteem it a great favour 
if any Lepidopterists would communicate 
their experience on this point. — Charles 
Darwin, Down, Bromley, Kent. 
[In reply to Mr. Darwin’s enquiry we 
may observe that very many of the 
Tineina are provided with tongues, and 
that these appendages are naturally used 
in extracting the sweets of flowers. It 
is no uncommon sight to see an Umbel- 
lifer swarming with the pretty little 
Glyphipteryx Fischeriella, each with its 
proboscis extended sucking at the flowers. 
The Depressarice, as is notorious to every 
collector of Nocluae, come very freely to 
sugar, and no doubt naturally visit 
flowers. 
But the fertilization of flowers may be 
accomplished by insects in another way. 
Many species oviposit on the blooming 
flowers; they do not deposit all their 
eggs on a single plant, but sparingly a 
