removed, and the fork-shaped supporting sides of the rostellum were partially withered. Mr. R. B. Thomson informs me that in the north of Scotland he saw many humble-bees (Bombus pratorum) visiting the flowers with pollen-masses attached to their proboscides. This species grows also in the United States; and Professor Asa Gray[1] confirms my account of its structure and manner of fertilisation, which is likewise applicable to another and very distinct species, namely, Goodyera pubescens.
Goodyera is an interesting connecting link between several very distinct forms. In no other member of the Neotteæ observed by me is there so near an approach to the formation of a true caudicle;[2] and it is curious that in this genus alone the pollen-grains cohere in large packets, as in the Ophreæ. If the nascent caudicles had been attached to the lower ends of the pollinia, and they are attached a little beneath their summits, the pollinia would have been almost identical with those of a true Orchis. In the rostellum being supported by sloping sides, which wither when the viscid disc is removed,—in the existence of a membranous cup or clinandrum between the stigma
- ↑ 'Amer. Journal of Science,' vol. xxxiv. 1862, p. 427. I formerly thought that with this plant and Spiranthes, it was the labellum which moved from the column to allow of the more free entrance of insects; but Professor Gray is convinced that it is the column which moves.
- ↑ In a foreign species, Goodyera discolor, sent me by Mr. Bateman, the pollinia approach in structure still more closely those of the the Ophreæ; for the pollinia extend into long caudicles, resembling in form those of an Orchis. The caudicle is here formed of a bundle of elastic threads, with very small and thin packets of pollen-grains attached to them and arranged like tiles one over the other. The two caudieles are united together near their bases, where they are attached to a disc of membrane lined with viscid matter. From the small size and extreme thinness of the basal packets of pollen, and from the strength of their attachment to the threads, I believe that they are in a functionless condition; if so, these prolongations of the pollinia are true caudicles.
