AND CROSS-FERTILIZE THEIR FLOWERS. 
27 
55 . The peculiarities are mainly these : 
First, the better to attract certain insects 
and repay them for their service, a sepa- 
rate organ for the nectar — -in this in- 
stance a long pouch or honey-tube — is 
attached to the flower. Then, to econo- 
mize the pollen, the whole of it in each 
cell of the anther is done up in little 
packets or coarser grains, which are tied, 
as it were, to each other by delicate 
elastic threads, and all made fast by 
similar threads to the upper end of a 
central stalk. Finally, to make sure of 
its being taken by the insect and not 
dropped or lost in the carrying,, the 
other end of this stalk bears a flat disk, 
commonly button-shaped, the exposed 
face of which is very sticky ; and this is 
placed just where it will be pretty sure 
to be attached to the head or proboscis 
of an insect that comes to drain the 
honey-tube. So that the insect, on ris- 
ing from his meal, will probably carry off 
bodily the whole pollen of that flower 
(or of one of its anther-cells), and be- 
stow it, or some of it, upon the next 
flower or flowers visited. 
56. In this particular species, the front 
petal is, as usual, the insect’s landing- 
place. The other petals are more arch- 
ing than the front view of the flower in 
Fig. 16 represents, and obstruct access 
on all other sides. The long and narrow 
front petal turns downwards and allows 
convenient approach. Underneath hangs 
Fig. 16. Flower of Greater Green Orchis (Habenaria 
orbiculata). 17. Its stamen and stigma more enlarged. 
18. One of the pollen-masses with its stalk and disk, 
equally enlarged. 19. Its disk and a part of the stalk 
more magnified. 
