is effected by a small dipterous insect. The following is 

 the substance of his elaborate description of the opera- 

 tion : — 



" The insect usually commences by licking the upper 

 part of the sepals, and eventually settles down on the 

 front of the lateral sepals, and commences to lick them. 

 As long as it is at work on the narrow upper part of the 

 sepals, it can hold on to their edges, but when it gets to 

 the broad part it cannot reach across. Its feet then slip 

 from the glassy surface, and it clutches wildly at the lip. 

 Immediately its weight falls, upon the lip, the latter 

 suddenly drops back, pitching the insect stern first into 

 the column, between its arms, which have enough 

 springyness in them to separate a little, and then close 

 tightly on the body of the captive. The insect strikes the 

 gland of the pollinia with the upper part of its abdomen, 

 and the pollinia become fixed with exact precision upon the 

 first segment of that organ ; the lower part of the abdomen 

 generally adhering to the stigma. The lip, released by 

 the fly, instantly returns to its original position, and the 

 insect is left struggling on its back in the arms of the 

 column. Soon, however, it releases itself, and flies away 

 with the pollen on its back, and, repeating the process on 

 another flower, places the pollen on its stigma. For 

 further interesting details I must refer to Mr. Ridley's 

 paper and its illustrations of the process. 



B. macranthum would appear to have a very wide range. 

 1 here are specimens in the Kew Herbarium collected by 

 the Rev. Mr. Parish in Tenasserim at an elevation of three 

 thousand six hundred and thirty-six feet. That figured by 

 -Undley (and Mr. Ridley's) are from Singapore. The 

 specimen here figured, and which was received from Mr. 

 i sqq mer ' g arclener at Flotbeck Park, near Hamburg, in 

 t«88, was said to have been imported from Java. It 

 flowered in the Royal Garden in May, 1890.— J. D. If. 



1 ^'i 1 ' T °. P of ° var y> column and lip; 2 and 3, view of lip; 4, column ; 

 o, anther ; b, pollinia -.—all enlarged. 



