1853, Mohesh Chunder Ghose, ‘Botany’ in appendix B: “Medical College Examination” in General Report on Public Instruction, in the Lower Provinces of the Bengal Presidency, from 1st Oct. 1851 to 30th Sept. 1852, Calcutta: Bengal Military Orphans Press, page cvii:
The pollen grains are aggregated into two masses called pollina.
We find in this species and in P. lacera (both common species and flowering at the same time in the latter part of summer), that the nectar appears to be much more plentiful in the spurs of older than of freshly-opened blossoms, most so indeed in flowers which had their pollina removed and their stigma fertilized several days before, and which were becoming effete.
Having room for only two or three more brief notes, one of them shall be upon — // — Goodyera. We can only refer our readers to Darwin’s description of G. repens, which is common in all our nothern forests. We confirmed before we read Mr. Darwin’s conjecture (on p. 114) “that the labellum moves farther from the column in mature flowers, in order to allow insects, with the pollina adhering to their heads or probosces, to enter the flowers more freely.” Except that, if we mistake not, it is the column which changes its position, rather than the labellum. All freshly-opened blossoms have the column so directed — a little bowed forwards — that the tip of the disc and of the anther are presented to view as you look into the narrow opening of the flower; and a proboscis or bristle, introduced, and following as it will the curvature of the lip-like or nozzle-shaped apex of the labellum, and passed down to its saccate nectar-bearing base, will inevitably hit the disc, and if detained a moment, will bring the pollinia away when withdrawn. On re-introduction, the pollina will not pass down to the stigma, but lodge on the upper side of the column, from whence they were taken. But on looking into older flowers of the same spike, still fresh and good, and whether their pollina have been extracted or not, the stigma is in full view, the summit of the column (we believe) being now turned somewhat upwards or backwards; and there is now room enough between it and the labellum for the pollinia to pass; indeed now the pollinia will regularly hit the stigma, to which packets of pollen will plentifully adhere.
If the insect now draws its foot forcibly out, it brings with it g, the two pollina (i) attached to it by their retinacula (h).
1899, Knowledge: A Monthly Record of Science XXII, page 150/2:
At first the pollinia stand erect, but in the course of thirty seconds or so they spontaneously curve into a horizontal position, and project in front of the bee’s head. If now the insect should enter another orchid the pollina are so placed that they must inevitably be pressed against the viscid surface of the stigma, on […]
Dr. T. A. Chapman suggested that a similar appearance was derived from the pollina of orchids forming a feathery mass on the head, while the President mentioned that the maxillæ and palpi of moths covered in the same way with the pollen of flowers also made the insect look as though it was covered with fungus.
Anther erect, 2-celled; pollina 4, united in pairs, sessile on a small gland.
1911, W.H. White (F.R.H.S.), The Book of Orchids, Lane (second edition), page 41:
By this process, if a male flower were approached and treated in the same way that these female flowers were treated, the pollina would be detached and would adhere to the bee’s body, and when the female flower in turn was visited it would be fertilised by the stigma, which is near the end of the column, being brushed by the column, through the contractions of body I have described. The larger species, however, invariably adopted a different course. It alighted on the summit of the lip and walked in, as a house fly walks on a ceiling, and in doing so its back invariably touched the top of the column. In this way the pollina would be liberated by the pressure, and would stick to the back of the insect, and when a female flower was entered it would rub against the stigmatic surface, thus effecting fertilisation of the flower.
The pollen of the Laelia is divided into a group of eight masses, slightly more rotund in shape than in Cattleya, while that of the other genera mentioned above (except Dendrobium which is more closely allied to Cattleya and has four pollinia) is a group of two — each being pear-shaped, and connected by a single strap (stipe) to a little foot-like organ (gland). This last will adhere tenaciously to the instrument that removes it, thereby making it simple and safe to carry the pollina to the stigma.
Rarely, if ever, found in peats, etc. It is possible, however, that whole pollina might yet be recognised.
1968, Michael K. Morcombe, Australia’s Western Wildflowers, Landfall Press, page 1/2:
The Bird Orchid (Pterostylis turfosa), one of the greenhood orchids, traps insect visitors behind spring-hinged door but offers escape along a narrowing tunnel. As it pushes out, each insect must touch and carry away an orchid’s pollina, a parcel that is delivered when next that […]
[…] sight […] a movement, and saw on the white orchid petals this tiny spider whose abdomen of golden yellow mimicked the colour and size and rounded shape of the orchid’s pollina.
1979, R. Bruce Knox, Pollen and Allergy, University Park Press, →ISBN (10), →ISBN (13), page 26:
[…] flower’s labellum is gripped by its claspers, the insect quivered for a moment, then became motionless before freeing itself from the flower with a pair of pollina attached to its abdomen.
1982–90, Denise Diamond, The Complete Book of Flowers, North Atlantic Books (second edition, 1990; revised edition of Living with the Flowers, 1982), →ISBN, chapter 1: “Getting to Know the Flowers”, §: ‘Orchid family · Orchidaceae’, page 34:
The pollen is called pollina — a waxy, sticky substance that forms small balls.
ibidem:
The orchid is constructed for efficient pollination. The pollina sticks to the insect’s body, head, or tongue so that when the insect flies away the pollina is pulled from the anthers.
“His momentum carries him and the dummy up and over, pivoting on the end of a hinged arm” that brings his back “smartly into contact with the orchid’s pollina and stigmatic plate.”
1986, Marga C.M. Werkhoven, Orchideeën van Suriname / Orchids of Suriname, Vaco, page 48:
When the pollinator leaves the flower and has removed the pollinaria, the pollina and adhesive disc remain attached to him. The miniscule stipes to which the pollina are attached make hygroscopic movements, so that, after some time they are in such a position that they can be rubbed off on the next flower the insect visits.
1995, T.M. Ramakrishna, S.N. Ramaswamy, and Govindappa D. Arekal, The Asclepiadaceae and Periplocaceae of Karnataka, Prasaranga, page 13:
Euasclepiadeae: Pollen waxy or pellucid, gathered in solitary or rarely paired masses (pollinia) in each loculous; the pollina at dehiscence coming in two’s or more, rarely four.
Milkweed pollen comes in tiny teardrop masses called pollina. If a needle is inserted in one of the slits in the crown of a milkweed flower and pulled upward, it will have two pollen masses hanging on it, joined by a thread. When an insect straddles the slippery flower, it must struggle to get a foothold, and invariably a leg will slip into the tiny groove where the pollina lie waiting to attach themselves to it by the cross thread when the insect jerks its leg out of the crevice. The next flower presents the same trap, and in the struggle to free its leg, the insect deposits its load of pollen.
2008, Valerie Oxley, Botanical Illustration, The Crowood Press (e-book edition, 2013), →ISBN, chapter 2: “Simple Botany of Plants and Flowers”, unnumbered page:
In the case of the British bee orchid Ophrys apifera pollen is held in structures called pollina, which are situated at the top of the flower.
2009, Belinda Jane Pellow (author), Murray James Henwood and Roger Charles Carolin (contributors), Flora of the Sydney Region: A Complete Revision, Sydney University Press (fifth edition), →ISBN, Magnoliophyta families, § 115: Apocynaceae, key to the genera, page 361:
Pollen consolidated into sac like pollinia, two pollina per anther; corona present.
