JOURNAL  OF  HORTIOULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER 
October  2l;  1897. 
378 
arrangement,  no  sort  of  seq^uence  in  them — I  give  them  as  I  came 
across  them,  or  picked  them  up. 
Some  day  another  Darwin  will  arise  and  give  us  the  evolution  of 
plants  in  full,  and  astonish  the  world  quite  as  much  as  the.  original 
Darwin  did.  Several  good  and  daring  attempts  at  this  have  been 
made  already.  A  series  of  delightful  papers  appeared,  I  think,  in 
“  Knowledge  ”  some  years  ago,  but  a  comprehensive  pronunciamento 
is  coming,  and  soon,  for  the  times  are  ripe  for  it,  , 
We  will  begin  with  the  Spotted  Orchis.  In  this  flower  the  stem 
supporting  the  pollen  bag  has  its  base  in  a  disc,  beneath  which  are 
two  walls  of  very  sticky  matter.  A  mere  touch  from  the  proboscis  of 
an  insect,  if  it  be  the  light  insect,  and  things  are  all  ready,  causes  a 
spasmodic,  electric,  or  mechanical  rupture  of  the  membrane  enclosing 
this  sticky  matter,  and  it  adheres  to  the  insect,  which  then  elopes  with 
the  pollen  bag  and  leaves  the  flower.  By  this  time  the  sticky  matter 
is  setting  like  so  much  cement,  and  by  some  wondrous  arrangement 
the  pollen  bag,  which  at  first  sticks  out  at  a  right  angle,  changes  to  an 
acute  angle  by  the  contracting  of  the  disc,  and  then  the  insect  can 
enter  another  flower,  leave  the  pollen  it  is  carrying  at  the  right  place, 
and  depart  with  another  pollen  bag. 
The  pollen  bags  thus  carried  off  always  fall  forward,  never  back¬ 
ward  or  sideways,  for  if  they  did  not  the  insect  could  not  enter  the 
next  flower.  The  insect,  again,  must  alight  in  the  right  place  to  get 
at  the  nectary,  which  is  a  small  vessel  of  honey.  The  insect  probably 
has  no  idea  that  it  is  being  made  use  of.  The  honey  is  there,  it  can 
smell  that,  and  goes  for  it,  and  the  plant  clearly  knowing  all  about 
it  so  arranges  its  nectary  that  there  is  the  right  amount  of  time  to 
load  it  up  with  the  pollen  before  the  insect  succeeds  in  getting  the 
honey. 
In  the  Orchis  pyramidalis,  the  disc  in  which  the  stem  carrying  the 
pollen  bag  has  its  base  in  the  shape  of  a  saddle,  which  grasns  the 
intruding  proboscis,  and  undergoes  various  changes  of  position  until 
the  saddle  clasps  tighter  and  tighter  and  curls  inwards,  so  that 
within  eighteen  seconds  it  looks  like  a  solid  ball.  In  this  case  two 
pollen  bags  arrange  themselves  so  as  to  insure  the  pollen  being  affixed 
to  the  sticky  mass  in  the  next  flower.  The  insect  cannot  get  its 
proboscis  in  askew ;  if  it  could  the  saddle-shaped  disc  would  not  act 
properly,  and  the  operation  would  end  in  failure. 
When  all  is  ripe  in  this  flower  you  can  impose  upon  it  with  a 
bristle.  Apparently,  it  can  tell  a  bit  of  wire  or  a  needle,  and  will  not 
act;  but  when  Darwin  got  a  bristle  and  inserted  it  the  saddle  gripped, 
and  out  came  the  pollen  bag.  A  friend  of  mine  says  he  succeeded 
with  a  thin  programme  pencil  shai-pened  to  a  fine  point.  Inserting 
this  in  the  bell  of  the  field  Orchis  he,  on  withdrawing  it,  saw  it 
covered  with  pollen,  which  in  forty'  seconds  was  ready  for  its  work  in 
the  next  flower,  only  the  programme  pencil  was  wingless.  At  first 
the  pollen  adhered  so  fast  that  it  could  not  be  got  off  easily;  but  after 
a  lapse  of  time  needful  for  the  bee  to  do  its  work,  the  cement  dried 
and  lost  its  elasticity.  Another  curious  thing  about  the  Orchis  pyra¬ 
midalis  is  the  fact  that  it  manages  to  attract  visitors  both  day  and 
night ;  the  day  visitors  by  the  bright  purple  colour,  the  night  visitors 
by  a  curiously  foxy  smell. 
The  moths  fertilising  these  flowers  do  not  always  gain  by  the 
work  they  do.  Greed  here,  as  elsewhere,  sometimes  overshoots  the 
mark.  Darwin  saw  one  with  eleven  pairs  of  these  pollen  bags 
attached  to  its  proboscis,  and  thus  loaded  it  could  enter  no  other 
nectary.  It  almost  seems  as  if  Nature  were  thinking  more  of  the 
flower  than  the  insect.  IIow  the  latter  managed  to  accumulate  so 
many  collars  and  ruffs  is  not  easily  imagined.  Darwin,  however, 
found  no  honey  in  the  nectaries  of  these  flowers,  and  Krunitz  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  this  Orchid  was  just  trying  on  a  smalt  swindle, 
and  getting  the  insect  to  come  on  a  false  pretence.  Darwin  is  of 
opinion  that  the  honey  is  there,  but  better  concealed,  so  as  to  detain 
the  moth  in  search  of  it  for  the  requisite  time.  He  found  several 
cunning  arrangements  in  other  flowers. 
In  cases  where  the  matter  is  sticky  enough  to  hold  the  pollen  mass 
the  nectary  is  easily  reached,  there  being  no  benefit  in  keeping  the 
insect  waiting.  Why  the  flower  could  not,  or  did  not,  always  arrange 
things  thus  requires  a  considerably  greater  amount  of  explanation  than 
I  am  able  to  cope  with. 
The  Bee  Ophrys  Orchid  is  a  surprise  in  all  respects.  It  looks  like 
a  bee  (just  as  a  Spider  Ophrys  is  like  a  spider  and  the  Fly  Ophrys  like  a 
fly),  but  why  it  looks  like  a  bee  requires  some  explanation,  and  why  it 
provides  for  self-fertilisation  still  more.  Self-fertilisation  is  the  one 
thing  that  the  greater  part  of  the  ingenuity  displayed  in  plant  life  is 
incended  to  prevent ;  but  in  this  queer  little  Orchid  it  is  as  clearly 
meant.  The  pollen  bags  are  so  arranged  that  a  gust  of  wind  sends  the 
drooping  head  of  the  bag  against  its  own  disc.  The  stem  is  flexible, 
and  keeps  bending  in  the  right  direction  till  the  wind  rises  and  com¬ 
pletes  the  work.  Darwin  says  he  never  knew  a  case  when  this  plan* 
did  not  fertilise  itself,  but  he  was  also  quite  of  the  opinion  that  it  was 
occasionally  fertilised  by  foreign  pollen,  or  it  would  have  perished. 
The  question  of  self-fertilisation  is  a  curious  one,  inexplicable 
indeed  in  our  present  state  of  knowledge,  or  rather  pi’esent  state  of 
ignorance.  There  is  abundance  of  evidence  that  Nature  intends  self- 
fertilisation  as  a  last  resort  to  carry  on  the  species  when  cross¬ 
fertilisation  is  not  achieved.  In  the  Ferget-me-not,  for  instance,  the 
pistil,  or  female  organ,  is  longer  than  the  corolla  stamens,  so  that  an 
insect  alighting  with  foreign  pollen  on  its  body  comes  in  contact  with 
the  first,  but  the  'corolla  and  stamens  gradually  grow  up  to  the  pistil, 
when  self-fertilisation  is  inevitable.  In  some  cases  this  is  impossible, 
the  pollen  having  no  effect,  or  even  a  poisonous  one,  on  the  stigma  of 
the  same  flower..  Plants,  the  result  of  cross-fertilisation,  are  stronger 
and  larger  than  those  which  result  from  .self-fertilisation. 
S  nnetimes  the  visiting  insect  gets  the  pollen  attached  to  its  face 
instead  of  the  proboscis — all  depends  on  the  jDosition  of  the  sticky 
matter.  In  one  case  the  insect  alights  on  the  lip  of  a  flower,  which 
iinmediatels  gives  way  and  sinks  so  low  that  it  seems  as  if  the  pollen 
could  not  be  got  at.  But  when  the  insect  gets  inside,  the  lip  of  the 
flower  goes  bacS  in  its  place,  and  in  such  a  way  as  to  insure  its 
brushing  the  pollen  off.  In  the  IMarsh  Epipactis,  the  insect,  in 
backing  out,  touches  the  broad  end  of  an  anther,  which  then  releases 
the  pollen  as  if  there  were  a  spring  at  worir.  Darwin  in  this  case 
tried  a  long  time  to  unlock  the  pollen  with  a  feather,  but  till  he 
touched  this  particular  anther  it  remained  quite  fast.  'J'his  explained 
why  the  lip  fell  when  the  insect  alighted  on  it.  If  it  had  not  done  so 
the  insect  going  in  that  way,  instead  of  coming  out,  would  have 
brushed  off  the  pollen  v/here  it  was  of  no  nse.— {Paper  read  ly 
Mr.  W.  Pickard  at  a  meeting  of  the  Sheffield  Chrysanthemum  Society) 
(To  be  continued.) 
PRUNINO  GOOSEBERRIES  AND  CURRANTS. 
VAitious  methods  of  pruning  bush  fruits  are  adopted,  both  good 
and  bad,  but  as  regards  the  Gooseberry  the  effects  of  ill-treatment 
are  not  always  apparent  to  the  untrained  eye,  at  least  for  several  years, 
when  the  value  of  the  plant  has  been  mateiially  decreased.  This 
plant  will  endure  much  rough  treatment  and  yet  produce  its  annual 
crop  of  fruit.  I  have  seen  bushes  pruned  with  shears  into  rounded 
mop-heads,  still  there  was  fruit  to  be  gathered,  though  difficult  to  get 
at.  On  the  other  hand  I  have  known  bushes  practically  left  to  them¬ 
selves,  no  systematic  or  other  pruning  being  attempted,  and  berries 
were  had,  but  in  diminishing  size  and  quantity,  year  after  year  after 
the  first  vigour  of  youth  was  passed.  When  we  possess  a  plant  that 
will  endure  so  much  it  ought  to  (lay  for  better  treatment,  and  in  fact 
the  Gooseberry  responds  most  readily  when  subjected  to  judicious 
methods.  It  should  not  be  a  question  how  much  it  will  endure,  but 
how  far  we  can  improve  it  by  the  best  attention.  This,  I  know,  is 
the  way  in  which  all  true  gardeners  regard  every  plant  under  their 
charge,  but  there  are  some  who  have  not  their  hearts  in  the  work,  and 
others  who  are  beginners,  and  so  we  always  find  a  proiiortion  of  care¬ 
lessness  or  mistakes  that  need  rectification. 
The  present  is  a  suitable  time  for  pruning  bush  fruits,  and  it 
should  be  equally  seasonable  to  relate  our  experience,  and  submit 
observations  for  consideration.  First  of  all,  a  word  of  caution  may 
be  given  to  the  inexperienced  who  may  be  purchasing  Gooseberries, 
because  it  has  a  direct  bearing  upon  the  subject  we  are  about  to 
discuss.  Whatever  age  the  bushes  may  be,  see  that  the  stem  rises 
several  inches  clear  of  the  ground,  and  that  there  are  no  buds  below 
the  soil  level.  Why  so  many  Gooseberry  cuttings  should  be  made 
without  the  removal  of  the  low'er  buds  it  is  difficult  to  imagine,  for 
