At last Darwin had made his point. He had been fearing continuously the struggle that would be caused by his ideas, but when it was all over he could bear the stress rather well. He took care to stay out of the confusion of battle and left the fight to Huxley and others. These friends delivered him regularly a report and in this way he could endure everything very well despite his bad health. In the meantime he went on with his work steadily. Not many hours a day but yet with great regularity. He had to take care of new editions of his Origin and he also wrote many articles. Moreover he started to work on several subjects, especially botanical ones, which were connected to his theory.

Thus in 1862 his book on orchids was published in which he discussed the miraculous adaptations for pollination. On the pages of the pictures above he describes the ingenious way in which this orchid is fertilized by insects. When an insect touches the curved horn while it is landing, a projectile  loaded with pollen is launched. The sticky little disc hits the head of the insect and the pollen 'ears' remain standing upright. When the insect arrives at the next plant of the same species, this one will be fertilized. The orchid book is still in use and very good. The experiments were done in the greenhouse and like before he had corresponded with many people all over the world on this subject.

Darwin 46

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