ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book shows that the contrivances by which orchids are fertilized, are as varied and almost as perfect as any of the most beautiful adaptations in the animal kingdom. It also shows that these contrivances have for their main object the fertilization of the flowers with pollen brought by insects from a distinct plant. As orchids are universally acknowledged to rank among the most singular and most modified forms in the vegetable kingdom. In most flowers the stamens, or male organs, surround in a ring the one or more female organs, called the pistils. The stigma is penetrated in the act of fertilization by long tubes, emitted by the pollen-grains, which carry the contents of the grains down to the ovules or young seeds in the ovarium.
