same guy wrote this poem
HE twilight turns from amethyst
To deep and deeper blue,
The lamp fills with a pale green glow
The trees of the avenue.
The old piano plays an air,
Sedate and slow and gay;
She bends upon the yellow keys,
Her head inclines this way.
Shy thoughts and grave wide eyes and hands
That wander as they list--
The twilight turns to darker blue
With lights of amethyst. James Joyce
The orchid thief is a true story, I remember reading the story about the trial. When this book came out I read it, the best part of the book was the history of orchids. Here are some of the mind blowing things about orchids.
While there are species of orchids that are self-pollinated, the rest are pollinated by bees, wasps, moths, flies butterflies, gnats, ants, and birds. These animals are attracted in different ways, often to a specific species of orchid. For instance, particular bees are attracted to a variety of orchids because of their scent. By collecting scented droplets, they pollinate the flowers. Some blossoms are brightly colored to attract butterflies, while others are dull, but fragrant only at night in order to catch the attention of moths. Many species, like other flowers, are brightly colored and produce sweet nectar to invite birds.
Here are some games that will make you think twice about the distinction between plants and animals. Would you believe that because some orchids resemble female insects by appearance and scent, the male insects attempt to mate with, or steal away, the ' female insect look alike orchid!' Other insects think certain orchid species are the enemy and go right into attack mode. Of course when they fly away coated with pollen, they deposit it onto the stigmas of other flowers.
Another example: certain orchids have sensitive labellums, which close as soon as they are touched. The trapped insects must squeeze through a slim tunnel between the flower column and tip of its labellum to escape, consequently covering its body with pollen. And let's hope they didn't just finish a big dinner.
There many reasons why some orchids certainly appear to have outsmarted insects. She has a cryptic, picturesque, writing style, and we think reading her work will entice many of our subscribers to take up a new pastime - namely growing orchids. We highly recommend her work. Here are some excerpts from her book.
As the insects lick the nectar they are slowly lured into a narrowed tube inside the orchid until their heads are directly beneath the crest of the flower's rostellum (an extension of the stigma, the part of a flower on which pollen germinates). When the insects raise their heads the crest shoots out little darts of pollen that are instantly and firmly cemented to the insects' eyeballs, but then fall off the moment the insects put their heads inside another orchid plant.
How the insects get to another orchid plant is beyond us. This image is so vivid; it hurts to read the words!
Some orchids have straight-ahead good looks but have deceptive and seductive odors. There are orchids that smell like rotting meat, which insects happen to like.
Another orchid smells like chocolate.
No one knows whether orchids evolved to complement insects or whether the orchids evolved first, or whether somehow these two life forms evolved simultaneously, which might explain how two totally different living things came to depend on each other. The harmony between an orchid and its pollinator is so perfect that it is kind of eerie.
Orlean's work will take you back in time and entice you to contemplate the Earth as its life forms began to evolve. And she will challenge your instincts, perceptions, and assessment skills to rethink how all forms of organic life relate.
Orchids thrived in the jungle because they developed the ability to live on air rather than soil and positioned themselves where they were sure to get light and water - high above the rest of the plants on the branches of trees. They thrived because they took themselves out of competition.
If all of this makes orchids seem smart - well, they do seem smart. There is something clever and unplantlike about their determination to survive and their knack for useful deception and their genius for seducing human beings for hundreds and hundreds of years.
The big question is, will human beings ever become that smart? We are so easily seduced by greed, our own images, corrupt business practices, politicians with hidden agendas, and so many other influences that do not sustain our species. Will the pollution we create trigger our migration to places VERY high above our jungle floor? How do we take ourselves out of competition when the population of the world is increasing at such an alarming rate? What must we do in order to continue to thrive as long as the orchids?
A few months later, what do I see in the paper, a orchid show at the university
This I had to see! I wanted to watch orchid people to see if they were really that strange, they were
But, I had only seen orchids in the supermarket or nurseries. I had never seen anything like the orchids at this show. I really do believe that orchids have brains
Here is a beauty 8)
"He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the gulf stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish."
