He walled the study with books.

...Upupa, the hoopoe ; Halycon and Ceryle among kingfishers; Turnix and Caccabis among Gallinae, and...

[…] how he struggled at one time like a desperate man fiercly grappling with his mortal foe, and at another like a sanguine lover and noble minded youth, as the cliffy rocks impeded his progress, or dimmed the view he had caught of an aperture, through which the galaxied firmament was seen in its purity and holiness glowing with diamonds and saphires; […]

Orchids rely on fungi to reproduce. Their tiny seeds don't have any on-board nutrients (like beans and apples) and will not germinate until they are infected by a symbiotic fungus which supplies them with food. Known as a protocorm, this tiny orchid-fungus ball grows, turns green and eventually starts to photosynthesise.