Page:Darwin - The various contrivances by which orchids are fertilized by insects (1877).djvu/148

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MALAXEÆ AND EPIDENDREÆ.

I now described the manner of fertilisation of fifteen genera, found in Britain, which belong, according to Lindley's classification, to the Ophreæ, Arethuseæ, and Neotteæ. A brief account of several foreign genera belonging to these same tribes has been added, from observations published since the appearance of the first edition of this book. We will now turn to the great exotic tribes of the Malaxeæ, Epidendreæ, and Vandeæ, which ornament in so wonderful a manner the tropical forests. My chief object in examining these latter forms has been to ascertain whether their flowers were as a general rule fertilised by pollen brought by insects from another plant. I also wished to learn whether the pollinia underwent those curious movements of depression by which, as I had discovered, they are placed, after being removed by insects, in the proper position for striking the stigmatic surface.

By the kindness of many friends and strangers I have been enabled to examine fresh flowers of several species, belonging to at least fifty exotic genera, in the several sub-tribes of the above three great tribes.