. Notes on the life history of British flowering plants. Botany; Plant ecology. 408 BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS. sufficient to bring them in contact. While, therefore, in most species of Orchis and Ophrys self-fertilisation appears to be impossible, in the Bee Orchis it is carefully provided for. Darwin has examined hundreds of flowers, and has never seen reason in a single instance to believe that pollen had been brought from one flower to another; and he has met with very few cases in which the pollen mass failed to reach its own stigma. He has never seen an insect visit the flowers of this spe
. Notes on the life history of British flowering plants. Botany; Plant ecology. 408 BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS. sufficient to bring them in contact. While, therefore, in most species of Orchis and Ophrys self-fertilisation appears to be impossible, in the Bee Orchis it is carefully provided for. Darwin has examined hundreds of flowers, and has never seen reason in a single instance to believe that pollen had been brought from one flower to another; and he has met with very few cases in which the pollen mass failed to reach its own stigma. He has never seen an insect visit the flowers of this species, and R. Brown suggested that the resemblance of the flower to bees was to deter insects from visiting them. Darwin does not think this probable. Can it be to deter browsing quadrupeds ? He believes also that, though this species habitually fertilises itself, the curious arrangements which it possesses in common with other allied species are of use in securing an occasional cross, even if only at very long intervals. Malaxis M. paludosa.—One of our smallest Orchids. As already mentioned the labellum is theoretically the upper petal, but assumes the position of a lower lip by the twisting of the ovary. In Malaxis it is in the normal position as an upper lip. That Malaxis has descended from Orchids in which the labellum was below, is, however, shown by the curious fact that it has taken its present place by a double twist, so that it now occupies the position it would have held had there been no twist at all. When ripe, the ovary gradually untwists. The edges of the leaves produce cellular bulbils, hence the leaves if placed in the ground develop new plants. Fig. SSZ.—Ophri/s Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Lubbock, John, Sir, 1834-1913. London, New York, Macmillan and Co. , L
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