190 THE OPEN BOOK OF NATURE 
fertilization. You would almost think that the 
Orchis had calculated its plan, and might readily 
give it credit for much intelligence. 
The great naturalist Charles Darwin wrote a 
book called ‘“‘ The Fertilization of Orchids,” which 
describes many wonders of the Orchid family. In it 
he refers to an Orchid which is found in Trinidad, 
named Ooryanthes speciosa. He described the habits 
of this flower also in his “‘ Origin of Species.”’ He 
wrote: ‘This Orchid has part of its labellum, or 
lower lip, hollowed out into a great bucket, into 
which drops of almost pure water continually fall 
from two secreting horns which stand above it ; and 
when the bucket is half full, the water overflows by 
a spout on one side. The basal part of the labellum 
stands over the bucket, and is itself hollowed 
out into a sort of chamber with two lateral 
entrances ; within this chamber there are curious 
fleshy ridges. The most ingenious man, if he had 
not’ witnessed what takes place, could never have 
imagined what purpose all these parts serve. But 
Dr. Criiger saw crowds of large humble-bees visiting 
the gigantic flowers of this Orchid, not in order to 
suck nectar, but to gnaw off the ridges within the 
chamber above the bucket ; in doing this, they fre- 
quently pushed each other into the bucket, and, 
their wings being thus wetted, they could not fly 
away, but were compelled to crawl out through the 
passage formed by the spout or overflow. Dr. 
Criiger saw a ‘continual procession’ of bees thus 
crawling out of their involuntary bath. The passage 
is narrow, and is roofed over by the column, so that 
a bee, in forcing its way out, first rubs its back 
