Birds and Nature, Vol. 08, No. 2, September 1900: Illustrated by Color PhotographyVarious
History
Birds and Nature, Vol. 08, No. 2, September 1900: Illustrated by Color Photography
Various
Birds -- Periodicals; Natural history -- Periodicals
It would be impossible to give any adequate account of the subject of
insect-pollination in general, as it is an immense subject with an
ever-increasing literature. Every kind of flower has its own particular
way of solving the problem, so that the subject will never be completed
until all flowers have been questioned and their answers obtained.
Any account, however brief, should not omit mention of the orchids,
which in the matter of insect-pollination have reached the highest
degree of organization. So detailed are their adaptations that
each kind of flower is adapted to a particular kind of insect. The
accounts given of the various ways in which orchids attract insects
and secure pollination really surpass belief, until one has actually
observed some of the plants and their insects at work. Any greenhouse
furnishes abundant examples of orchids, and our illustration represents
one of the most common of our native orchids, the ordinary yellow
Lady-slipper. In most orchid flowers there is a long tubular spur, at
the bottom of which the nectar is found, which is to be reached by
long probosces, such as can be found only in moths and butterflies. In
Lady-slippers, however, there is a different arrangement. The flowers
have a conspicuous pouch in which the nectar is secreted, and a flap
overhangs the opening of the pouch. Behind the flap are the two pollen
masses, between which is the stigmatic surface. A bee crowds itself
away into the pouch and becomes imprisoned, and may frequently be found
buzzing about uneasily. The nectar is in the bottom of the pouch, and
after feeding the bee moves toward the opening overhung by the flap,
and rubs itself against the stigma and then against the anthers,
receiving the pollen on its back. A visit to another flower will result
in rubbing some of the pollen upon the stigma, and in receiving more
pollen for another flower.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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