. The orchids of New England; a popular monograph. Orchids. THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 23. Miiller's stupendous work, The Fertilization of Flowers (it has recently been translated from the German) gives very clear and plausible reasons for the concealment of the pollen and the peculiar formation of the nectaries in plants, and I am sure it will add to the reader's pleasure in studying the Showy Orchis if I insert some extracts. "Freely exposed, pollen is liable to be ^AD 0F Mora, spoilt by rain, devoured by flies and beetles, Acontia luctuosa, A J J with pollen-masses at- or carri
. The orchids of New England; a popular monograph. Orchids. THE ORCHIDS OF NEW ENGLAND. 23. Miiller's stupendous work, The Fertilization of Flowers (it has recently been translated from the German) gives very clear and plausible reasons for the concealment of the pollen and the peculiar formation of the nectaries in plants, and I am sure it will add to the reader's pleasure in studying the Showy Orchis if I insert some extracts. "Freely exposed, pollen is liable to be ^AD 0F Mora, spoilt by rain, devoured by flies and beetles, Acontia luctuosa, A J J with pollen-masses at- or carried away by pollen-collecting bees. bached to its proboscis. Pollimum removed by Of these Contingencies, the first is wholly a pencil and before un- .. 1 dergoing the movement an evil, the second becomes advantageous Qf depression (Both if any considerable amount of pollen is fromDarwm) conveyed to the stigma, and the third almost always results in fertilization, and is therefore altogether advantageous. Concealment of the pollen, as of the honey, must have been brought about, in the first place, as a protection from rain. Since with this advantage comes the disadvantage that the sheltered pollen is less likely to be touched and placed on the stigma by insect visitors, concealment of the stamens has not become general And all flowers with hidden anthers have only been able to shelter their pollen from rain in so far as they have developed other adaptations for particular visitors, which compensate for the less general access of pollen-carrying insects. For this reason, flowers with hidden pollen (Orchids, for instance) afford the most conspicuous examples of adapta- tion in form and in dimensions to a more or less narrow circle of visitors. But the more perfectly flowers are adapted for cross-fertilization by particular insects, the more unlikely does it become that other insects visiting the flowers will effect cross-fertilization, and the more will such visits of other insects
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1884
