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136
My Studio Neighbors
·
W. Hamilton Gibson
94
And
the
flower
had
been
stolen
from
its
haunt
while
its
consort
slept,
and
had
awakened
in
a
glazed
prison--doubtless
sufficiently
comfortable,
save
for
the
absence
of
that
one
indispensable
counterpart,
towards
whom
we
behold
in
the
blossom's
very
being
the
embodied
expression
of
welcome.
Blooming
day
after
day
in
anticipation
of
his
coming,
and
week
after
week
still
hoping
against
hope,
we
see
the
flower
fade
upon
its
stalk,
and
with
what
one
might
verily
believe
to
be
evidences
of
disconsolation,
were
it
not
that
the
ultra-scientist
objects
to
such
a
sentimental
assumption
with
regard
to
a
flower,
which
is
unfortunate
enough
to
show
no
sign
of
nerves
or
gray
matter
in
its
composition.
Who
shall
claim
to
know
his
orchid
who
knows
not
its
insect
sponsor?
To
take
one
of
our
own
wild
species.
Here
is
the
Arethusa
bulbosa
of
Linnaeus,
for
instance.
Its
pollen
must
reach
its
stigma--so
he
supposed--in
order
for
the
flower
to
become
fruitful.
But
this
is
clearly
impossible,
as
the
pollen
never
leaves
its
tightly
closed
box
unless
removed
by
outside
aid,
which
aid
must
also
be
required
to
place
it
upon
the
stigma.
This
problem,
which
confronted
him
in
practically
every
orchid
he
met,
Linnaeus,
nor
none
of
his
contemporaries,
nor
indeed
his
followers
for
many
years,
ever
solved.
Not
until
the
time
of
Christian
Conrad
Sprengel
(1735)
did
this
and
other
similar
riddles
begin
to
be
cleared
up,
that
distinguished
observer
having
been
the
first
to
discover
in
the
honey-sipping
insect
the
key
to
the
omnipresent
mystery.
Many
flowers,
he
discovered,
were
so
constructed
or
so
planned
that
their
pollen
could
not
reach
their
own
stigmas,
as
previously
believed.
The
insect,
according
to
Sprengel,
enjoyed
the
anomalous
distinction
of
having
been
called
in,
in
the
emergency,
to
fulfil
this
apparent
default
in
the
plain
intentions
of
nature,
as
shown
in
the
flower.
Attracted
by
the
color
and
fragrance
of
the
blossom,
with
their
implied
invitation
to
the
assured
feast
of
nectar,
the
insect
visited
the
flower,
and
thus
became
dusted
with
the
pollen,
and
in
creeping
or
flying
out
from
it
conveyed
the
fecundating
grains
to
the
receptive
stigma,
which
they
could
not
otherwise
reach.
Such
was
Sprengel's
belief,
which
he
endeavored
to
substantiate
in
an
exhaustive
volume
containing
the
result
of
his
observations
pursuant
to
this
theory.
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