188 THE OPEN BOOK OF NATURE 
the good food they are getting, as well as the absence 
of necessity for struggling with other plants for the 
means of existence. 
There is a little friend here that I hoped to see 
to-day—the Early Purple Orchis (Orchis mascula). 
He made his appearance in April, but it is not un- 
common for a specimen to be a little later, and linger 
on even until June. People who see curious and 
beautiful Orchids growing in hothouses in which a 
tropical climate is artificially made and maintained 
all the year round are apt to forget that Great 
Britain possesses upwards of forty species and 
varieties of these plants. Our native Orchids are 
not so showy and conspicuous as those that are 
brought from the Tropics, but they are worthy of 
our most careful attention. To use an American- 
ism, Orchids are the “‘ ’cutest ’’ contrivances imagin- 
able; they display the greatest ingenuity in their 
methods of securing the services of insects in their 
fertilization. Look at this specimen of the Harly 
Purple Orchis. The flower-stalk bears several 
flowers, each separate flower being attached to the 
stalk by a twisted ovary, and having a long hollow 
spur which contains nectar. One petal, which is 
three-lobed, forms a landing-stage for insects, and 
other two petals form a hood covering a pair of pollen 
sacs, which do not appear conspicuously like ordinary 
stamens. Just where the ovary is attached to the 
perianth, and beyond the pollen masses, there is a 
sticky surface, which forms the stigma. Now, I 
take my pencil and push it firmly into the mouth of 
the flower. See what has happened. The pencil 
has come into contact with a sticky foot, called the 
