The pads are the male, the active organs.
But the column does not finish here. It trends downward, behind and
below the pads, and widens out, with an exquisitely graceful curve, into
a disc one-quarter of an inch broad. This is the female, the receptive
part; but here we see the peculiarity of orchid structure. For the upper
surface of the disc is not susceptible; it is the under surface which
must be impregnated, though the imagination cannot conceive a mere
accident which would throw those fertilizing pads upon their destined
receptacle. They are loosely attached and adhesive, when separated, to a
degree actually astonishing, as is the disc itself; but if it were
possible to displace them by shaking, they could never fall where they
ought. Some outside impulse is needed to bring the parts together. In
their native home insects perform that service--sometimes. Here we may
take the first implement at hand, a knife, a bit of stick, a pencil. We
remove the pads, which yield at a touch, and cling to the object. We lay
them one by one on the receptive disc, where they seem to melt into the
surface--and the trick is done. Write out your label--_"Cyp. Sanderianum
x Cyp. Godefroyae_, Maynard." Add the date, and leave Nature to her work.
She does not linger. One may almost say that the disc begins to swell
instantly. That part which we term the column is the termination of the
seed-purse, the ovary, which occupies an inch, or two, or three, of the
stalk, behind the flower.
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