Page:On the Various Contrivances by Which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects, and on the Good Effects of Intercrossing.djvu/59



I will now enter on details. The general appearance of this species is represented in the following woodcut, Fig. XXV.; B, being a side view of the whole flower, but with all the petals and sepals excepting the labellum cut off, and A, being a front view of the column. The upper sepal and two upper petals surround and protect the column; the two lower sepals project out at right angles. The flower stands more or less inclined to either side, but with the labellum downwards. The dull coppery and orange-spotted tints, the yawning chasm in the great fringed labellum, the one antenna stuck out with the other hanging down give to these flowers a strange, lurid, and reptilian appearance.