And how diversely are these again modified in the different genera and species of orchids, of which one is adapted to the visits of butterflies exclusively, as _Orchis ustulata_, another to those of bees, as _Orchis morio_, and a third to those of flies, as _Ophrys muscifera_. These flowers are adapted to insect visits in the minutest details of the form of the petals, which are smooth, as if polished with wax, where insects are not intended to creep, but velvety or hairy where the path leads to the nectar, and at the same time to the pollen and the stigma. And then there is the diversity in the form and colour of the 'honey-guides' on the 'alighting surface,' that is, the under lip of the flower, upon which the insect sits and holds fast, while it pushes its head as far as possible into the spur, so that its proboscis may reach the nectar lying deep within it! Even though we cannot pretend to guess at the significance of every curve and colour-spot in one of the great tropical orchids, such as _Stanhopea tigrina_, yet we may believe, with Sprengel, that all this has its significance, or has had it for the ancestors of the plant in question, and in fact that the flower is made up of nothing but adaptations, either actual or inherited from its ancestors, although sometimes perhaps no longer of functional importance. So far, then, we have illustrated the fact that there are hundreds and thousands of contrivances in flowers adapted solely to the visits of insects and to securing cross-fertilization, and these adaptations go so far that we might almost believe them to be the outcome of the most exact calculation and the most ingenious reflection. But they all admit of interpretation through natural selection, for all these details, which used to be looked upon as merely ornamental, are directly or indirectly of use to the species; directly, when, for instance, they concern the dusting of the insect with the pollen; indirectly, when they are a means of attracting visits. Moreover, the evidence of the operation of the processes of selection becomes absolutely convincing when we consider that, as in symbiosis, there are always two sets of adaptations taking place independently of one another--those of the flowers to the visits of the insects, and those of the insects to the habit of visiting the flowers. To understand this clearly we must turn our attention to the insects, and try to see in what way they have been changed by adapting themselves to the diet which the flowers afford.