Page:Wayside and Woodland Blossoms.djvu/163

76.

This species is very similar in structure and habit to the Marsh Orchis, but the tubers are more cylindrical in shape, the radical leaves almost always restricted to two, the flower-spike lax. Flowers white with a greenish tinge, the labellum and spur very long: fragrant. The stigma two-lobed. Fertilized by moths. Occurs in meadows, hill-sides and woods, flowering from June to August.

. In the genus Ophrys we have three species whose flowers bear quite startling likeness to a bee, spider and fly respectively. What is the purpose of this counterfeit presentment it is difficult to conjecture. It has been suggested that it might be to warn off or deceive insects, as the flowers are self-fertilized, but Charles Darwin did not think this was the probable reason. There is no spur in this group, there is no rostellum, and the ovary is not twisted. The stalks (caudicles) of the pollinia are so long and thin that the weight of the pollen masses causes them to bend over and touch against the stigma, fertilizing it.