AXD rKRTILIZATIOX OF BONATKA. 471 



factory elucidation of the curious facts connected with the agency 

 of insects. I regret that on no occasion have I possessed the 

 plants in a cultivated state, so as to subject them to direct expe- 

 rimentation with the object of testing under a variety of circum- 

 stances the causes of the great fertility and infertility of different 

 species. Thus Disa cornuta, although very abundant, and pro- 

 ducing an enormous number of conspicuous flowers in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Port Elizabeth, only occasionally bears fertile seeds. 

 In October or November, 1S63, my friend Mr. E. I. Miller, of 

 Port Elizabeth, obtained for me a spike o^ Bonatea speciosa. This 

 plant was growing on the sand-ridge to the left of the village of 

 AValmer, and, so far as I am av/are, is confined to that neighbour- 

 hood at Algoa Bay. 



Having read the interesting notices of this aberrant and most 

 curious form in Mr. Parwin's celebrated work ' On tlie various 

 Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are fertilized 

 by Insects/ published in 18G2, I dissected several of the flowers, 

 and made drawings under the microscope with the camera lucida. 



But, last year (1SG5), in the Journal of the Linnean Society, 

 vol. ix. ]S"o. 35, I found a paper " On the Structure of Bonatea 

 speciosa^ Linn., with reference to its Fertilization," by Eoland 

 Trimen, Memh. Ent. Soc. London, and the well-known author of 

 ''Ehopalocera Africse Australis;" and this again drew my atten- 

 tion to the subject. 



In \\vQ spring of 1865, near the Koonap Eiver, I caught several 

 specimens of the smaller variety of Pieris gldica, and likewise of 

 -P. cJiarina^ with pollinia of some unknown species of Orchid 

 looselv attached to the sternum. 



In the present year I captured, towards the end of August,. a 

 specimen of ^ Antliocliaris Antigone^ which appeared to have some 

 difficulty in flying. On first observing it I imagined tliat the 

 yellow variety of the female Thomisus (? ahhreviatus, Walck.), 

 Order Araneida^ had seized this beautiful iusect as its prey; but 

 whilst squeezing it in the net, I perceived that unfortunately a 

 pair of pollinia belonging to some orchid had become dislodged 

 from its sternum. 



On searching the neighbourhood I found that, together with 

 the hitherto unknown habitat o^ Antigone,! had discovered anew 

 and interesting species of Bonatea^ which I believe to be as yet 

 undescribed. 



The plants were gro 



or 



ully 



amongst a few dried up ferns. Their tubers were barely covered 



LIX::^. PROC. BOTA.y Y, TOL. X. 2 1 



