Page:Darwin - The various contrivances by which orchids are fertilized by insects (1877).djvu/210

190 We may, at least, safely conclude that the antennæ, which are characteristic of the genus Catasetum, are specially adapted to receive and convey the effects of a touch to the disc of the pollinium. This causes the membrane to rupture, and the pollinium is then ejected by the elasticity of its pedicel. If we required further proof, nature affords it in the case of the so-called genus Monachanthus, which, as we shall presently see, is the female of Catasetum tridentatum, and it does not possess pollinia which can be ejected, and the antennæ are here entirely absent.

I have stated that in C. saccatum the right-hand antenna invariably hangs down, with the tip turned slightly outwards, and that it is almost paralysed. I ground my belief on five trials, in which I violently hit, bent, and pricked this antenna, and this produced no effect; but when immediately afterwards the left-hand antenna was touched with much less force, the pollinium was shot forth. In a sixth case a forcible blow on the right-hand antenna did cause the act of ejection, so that it is not completely paralysed. As this antenna does not guard the labellum, which in all Orchids is the part attractive, that is to insects, its sensitiveness would be useless.

From the large size of the flower, more especially of the viscid disc, and from its wonderful power of adhesion, I formerly inferred that the flowers were visited by large insects, and this is now known to be the case. The viscid matter sticks so firmly after it has set hard, and the pedicel is so strong (though very thin and only one-twentieth of an inch in breadth at the hinge), that to my surprise a pollinium attached to an object supported for a few seconds a weight of 1262 grains, or nearly three ounces; and it supported for a considerable time a slightly less weight. When