L4 
MR. J. P. M. WEALE ON SOUTH-AFRICAN HABENARLE. 47 
although apparently so well adapted for being fertilized by in- 
sects; yet in this species, where self-fertilization cannot be 
rare, the flowers produce an abundance of seed. Were the 
anther erect, as in the bud, or still more supine, as in D. cornuta, 
self-fertilization would be impossible, and other contrivances for 
fertilization would be necessary. This is the ease in D. cor- 
nuta, where the pollinium undergoes an upward movement after 
removal. 
I mention these circumstances with the view of seeing them 
worked out in other species. 
At present it seems strange that out of three very conspicuous 
species the most fertile should be one frequently liable to self- 
impregnation. 
Mr. Trimen, in the paper referred to, has aptly observed that 
Disa grandiflora seems to be a correlative case to that of Ophrys 
muscifera: it is curious that we should find the parallel carried out 
in Disa macrantha, an instance almost corresponding to Ophrys 
apifera, in which self-fertilization would appear to be the rule 
instead of the exception, and whose fertility is considerably 
greater than that of O. muscifera. 
Notes on some Species of Habenaria de, in South Africa. Abs- 
tract of a paper by J. P. Mansexn Weitz, B.A. Oxon. (Com- 
municated by Charles Darwin, Esq., F.R. & L.SS.) 
[Read November 3, 1870.] 
In a species of Habenaria found in December 1869 and January 1870 
on my farm “ Brooklyn,” nine miles from King William’s Town, 
the contraction of the caudicle takes place principally at the end 
attached to the viscid disk, which is seen to be very much thicker 
than the portion attached to the pollinium when removed from 
the rostellum. So great is the tension when zz situ that it is sur- 
prising the pollinia are not often dragged from the anther, or the 
disk from the rostellum. 
The fertilization of the plant is simple in the extreme, as any 
inseet settling on the bridge must almost certainly deposit one or 
both of the pollen-masses on the stigmata. 
The plant does not appear to be visited by diurnal insects, but 
must be very attractive to nocturnal ones, as, although each spike 
bears many flowers, and the plant itself grows in considerable 
