540 MB. H. O. FOBBES ON 



the outside is yellowish white. Its fringed mouth forms a broad 

 landing-stage for passing insects, for whose benefit, moreover, 

 brightly coloured ridges point the way inwards to the nectary, 

 which, unfortunately for the visitor, rarely contains any nectar. 

 The column, embraced by the labellum, is massive, expanding into 

 a stigma 11 millimetres broad, secreting an abundance of viscid 

 matter, crowned with the anther containing eight pollen-masses, 

 whose caudicles, composed of pollen-grains, protrude their tips 

 from beneath the anther-cap. I have examined several species — 

 P. Blumei, P. amboinensis, and P. albescens. 



Of the first-named I have examined more than 150 flowers, but 

 I have not yet found one that was not self-fertilized, nor one 

 that I think could well be otherwise than self-fertilized. The 

 flowers of Phaius Blumei I have found in two forms, slightly but 

 interestingly different. In the first specimens I examined, the 

 rostellum was a well-developed tongue-shaped projection arching 

 over the deep and caverned stigma, on which lay the caudicles 

 of the pollinia, which have no viscid disk on each side of the 

 central projection. The rostellum falls away toward the ex- 

 ternal walls of the stigma, diminishing on both sides the breadth 

 of the floor of the anther. On examining an advanced bud, the 

 viscid matter of the stigma is seen to be in large quantity and 

 rather liquid, and as it grows the amount of viscid matter 

 becomes greater and greater, till it overflows the Btigma — often 

 before the bud opens ; and immediately on its opening inundates 

 the pollinia, which now increase in size, and either advance 

 downwards, sometimes quite obliterating the rostellum, or, re- 

 taining their position in the anther, emit their tubes over the 

 narrower portion of the rostellum into the stylary canal. Very 

 often, however, both anther and stigma are quite filled up by the 

 multitude of pollen-tubes and by the swollen pollinia. All these 

 plants produced large and well-filled seed-capsules on every flower. 

 During all my observations I have never seen an insect visit the 

 plants, many of which were so situated that I could visit them 

 many times a day. 



Of flowers of the second form I saw many more examples. 

 There was no rostellum, nevertheless the boundaries of the stigma 

 were quite distinct. On examining a young bud, the anther 

 enclosing the pollinia is seen standing vertically erect on the top 

 of the column (that is, of the detached column without reference 

 to its position in the flower), forming as it were a pointed extension 

 of it, and attached to it by a minute filament. As the flower 



