Page:On the Various Contrivances by Which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects, and on the Good Effects of Intercrossing.djvu/31

proportion would almost certainly have been renewed. In Devonshire I found a spike with nine open flowers, and the pollinia in all were removed with one exception, in which a fly, too small to remove the pollinia, had become glued to it and to the stigma, and had there miserably perished.

Cephalanthera grandiflora.

This Orchid appears to be closely allied to Epipactis, though it has been ranked by some authors in a widely different position. The stigma holds the same relative position to the anther as in Epipactis; but we have here the unique case (my remarks never apply to the very different group of the Cypripedie) of there being no rostellum. The anther resembles that of Epipactis, but stands rather higher up relative to the stigma. The pollen is extremely friable, and readily adheres to any object rubbed against it; the spherical grains are separate, instead of being united by threes or fours, as in all other Orchids;^[1] they are tied together by a few weak elastic threads; so that in the state of the pollen, as well as in the abortion of the rostellum, we have degradation of structure. The anther opens whilst the flower is in bud and partly expels the pollen, which stands in two almost free upright pillars, each nearly divided longitudinally into two halves. These subdivided pillars rest in front against the upper square edge of the stigma, which rises to about one-third of their height (see front view B and side view C).

Whilst the flower is still in bud, or before it is as fully open as ever it becomes, the pollen-grains which rest

1. This separation of the grains was observed, and is represented, by Bauer in the plate published by Lindley in his magnificent 'Illustrations of Orchidaceous Plants.'