186G.] 
AMERICAN AORICULTURIST. 
291 
delicate as spider-web, and as elastic as India- 
rubber. The surface just under the anther and 
in the angle between the horns is the stigma. 
This is quite as sticky as the disks are. Now 
we should remark that our figure, made from a 
drawing many years old, when these nice adap¬ 
tations were unthought of, is not quite correct; 
the horns do not diverge so much, and the 
sticky buttons face forwards and a little inwards, 
nearly a quarter of an inch apart, one on each 
side of an open orifice, just between the stigma 
and the long and narrow front petal. This is 
the orifice of the spur, a long and narrow sac, 
the bottom of which contains honey or nectai’. 
The plain object of this is to attract honey-feed¬ 
ing insects. The honey-bearing sac in this in¬ 
stance being from to 2 inches long, with the 
nectar dripping to the bottom, the only insects 
which can make it worth their while to visit this 
Fig. 3.—A partial section of the sac, stigma, etc., of the 
Yellow Lady’s Slipper; anth.; one of the anthers. 
flower are those furnished with a proboscis of 
nearly this length. Such are butterflies and 
moths, the former flying by day, the latter 
by night. That such insects, with proboscis 
fully an inch-and-a-half long, actually do visit 
this flower, we have undoubted proof. They 
have been captured with something queer 
hanging from their protuberant eyes, sometimes 
one from each eye; when 
brought to us for examina¬ 
tion, we have identified the 
strange body (by a peculiar¬ 
ity not represented in the 
figure a), to be the pollen- 
mass of this very Orchis, or 
of another species vei’y like 
it. Then, on bringing the 
head of this butterfly, or 
any other of similar size, 
over the orifice of the 
honey-tube, just in the posi¬ 
tion it must occupy when 
the long proboscis is thrust 
down to the bottom of the 
tube, each eye comes in 
contact with one of the 
sticky disks. Withdraw the 
head after a few seconds 
interval, and the disks stick 
fast, bringing away with 
them the attached pollen- 
masses, leaving their cells 
empty. On inspecting a 
spike of flowers, we shall 
be apt to find that most of 
the blossoms towards the 
bottom, which have been 
longest open, have lost their 
pollen-masses. We see how 
they must have been car¬ 
ried off. It is very unlike- 
Ij' they could fall out of 
their place; it is next to impossible that one 
would ever fall upon the stigma, near by as 
it is, if the flower were let alone; while no 
butterfly or moth, with head about a quarter 
of an inch broad across the eyes, approaching 
it from the front—where the dependent nari’ow 
petal offers a favorable landing place,—could 
here drain the cup without showing the marks 
of it about his eyes. Suppose, after rising with 
one of these appendages fixed to either eye, the 
insect wei’e to settle back again into the same 
position,—which is not likely. If the stalks of 
the pollen-masses remained stiff" and motionless, 
obviously nothing would come of it. But, on 
manipulating with a butterfly’s head, or with 
the point of a pencil as a substitute, we find 
that the stalk of the pollen-mass bends down¬ 
wards and forwards within a few seconds after 
extraction (by a very peculiar movement), so 
that the two become parallel, or even converge 
instead of diverging as at first. If now the head 
be brought again over the orifice, the broad ends 
of the pollen-masses, one or both, will hit the 
stigma, will adhere to its sticky surface, and as 
we pull away, either the disk will separate from 
the insect’s head, leaving the whole pollen-mass 
on the stigma, or more commonly only those 
portions of the pollen-mass which had actually 
stuck to the stigma are torn away bj'’ the rup¬ 
ture of their elastic connecting threads, and 
left behind. 
In this way it is certainly possible that a stig¬ 
ma should get the pollen of its own flower; 
but not probable, for when the insect had drain¬ 
ed one flower it would fly to a fresh one, and 
give to that some or all of the pollen taken from 
its neighbor, taking away its pollen in turn, and 
so from plant to plant. To cross the flowers of 
the species is plainly the object of the whole 
contrivance, and an admirable contrivance it is, 
Fig. 3.—Flower of Yellow Lady’s Slipper, Cypripfdnm puUscena, of the natural size. 
by which winged insects are solicited to do the 
work for sedentary flowers. 
Different Orchids show very different but 
equally effectual aiTangements for the same 
end. In our pretty Arethma, for example, the 
Fig. 4 :.— Section of tlie slipper, stigma, etc., of the Stemless 
Lady’s Slipper, Cypripedium acattle, natural size, a. An¬ 
ther ; b. Sterile Stamen j c, Stigma. 
pollen is rather powdery, the grains loosely held 
together by delicate threads, and contained in a 
lielmet-shaped anther which is inverted on a 
shelf, the underside of which is stigma; and the 
anther is hinged at the back, and may be raised 
like the lid of a coffee pot; its front edge, the 
visor of the helmet, just projects a little beyond 
the shelf, as the lid of a chest does beyond the 
body, for the convenience of lifting; and when 
raised, the pollen tumbles out. Now a bee, en¬ 
tering the mouth of tiie flower over the crested 
front petal, sucks out a little nectar from the 
bottom of the narrow cup, which is over-arched 
by the upper petals and 
the long curved style 
carrying on its apex the 
stigma and the anther 
as above described, _Py. 
ramus and Thisbe very 
near each other, but with 
a solid wall between, so 
that communication is 
quite hopeless. The bee 
is not likel}’^ to help 
them directl}’. But as it 
backs out of the flower, 
and raises its head to fly 
away, it knocks up the 
lid by liitting the pro¬ 
jecting rim, and catches 
some of the loose pollen 
on its rough and bristly 
forehe.ad, enters with this 
into the next flower, 
where, when it retreats, it 
can hardly fail to dab this 
pollen on to the sticky 
face of the stigma, the 
instant before it raises tliat anther-lid and 
takes a new supply of pollen from this sec- 
Fig. 5.—Magnified sec¬ 
tion of a piirt of tile stig¬ 
ma of Lady’s Slipper, cut 
lengthwise, showing tlie 
short and stout little 
bristles or projections, like 
the teeth of a rasp or of a 
card, all pointing forward. 
