AND CROSS-FERTILIZE THEIR FLOWERS. 
31 
ferent from that of any other of the Orchis Family as to need a separate descrip- 
tion, but a very brief one must serve, as we have no figure ready. We refer to our 
wild species ; and first to the 
yellow ones and to the large 
white and pink one, Cypri - 
pedium spectabile, the Showy 
Lady’s-Slipper. Unlike other 
Orchids, there are two sta- 
mens : the pollen is powdery, or 
between powdery and pulpy, 
and not very different from 
that of ordinary flowers. As 
it lies on the open anther in a 
broad patch, it somehow gets 
a film like a thin coat of sticky 
varnish. The stigma is large, 
flat, and somewhat trowel- 
shaped, the face turned for- 
wards and downwards : it is 
supported on a stout style, to 
which the anthers have grown 
fast, one on each side. This 
apparatus is placed j ust within 
the upper part of the sac or 
slipper (rather like a moccason or buskin than a slipper), which gives name to the 
flower. There are three openings into the slipper ; a large round one in front, 
and the edges of this are turned in, after the fashion of one sort of mouse-trap ; 
two small ones far back, one on either side, directly under each anther. Flies and 
the like enter by the large front opening, and find a little nectar apparently be- 
dewing the long hairs that grow from the bottom of the slipper, especially well 
back under the overhanging stigma. The mouse-trap arrangement renders it dif- 
ficult for the fly to get out by the way it came in. As it pushes on under the 
stigma it sees light on either side beyond, and in escaping by one or the other of 
these small openings it cannot fail to get a dab of pollen upon its head, as it 
brushes against the film with which the surface is varnished. Flying to the next 
Fig. 22. Oncidium Papilio. Fig. 23. Comparettia rosea, 
are Epiphytes, or Air-plants, and reduced in size. 
Both 
