in a species, that species will be found common or the reverse. 

 The production of extra bulbs is favoured by the plant being 

 situated, as often is the case, in light leaf mould on the top 

 of a rock. In this position the waxy filamentous roots extend 

 a long distance on the surface of the stone beneath the loose 

 dead leaves and sticks, and protruding here and there into 

 the light, form new bulbs. From such situations the bulbs 

 are often swept by heavy rains, as they are also, by the 

 upcasting of ants, exposed to removal from the fine sandy 

 soil in which they grow, and by the burrowing of bandicoots. 

 Bulbs thus transported vegetate again, though frequently left 

 on the surface uncovered, and a species may in consequence 

 often be traced for a long distance through ' tea-tree ' slopes 

 and down gullies." 



The sensitiveness of the lip in this genus is a phenomenon 

 I have often watched in Tasmania, when I had no idea of 

 its significance, which has been inferred from Mr. Darwin's 

 observations on other Orchids, and tested by Mr. Fitzgerald. 

 In repose the lip hangs forward against the cleft between the 

 united lateral sepals, but on being irritated at its base, it 

 springs up and becomes embraced, as it were, by the project- 

 ing wings of the column, and is thus brought almost in 

 contact with the anther. An insect entering or falling into 

 the base of the flower irritates the lip, which catches it between 

 its face and the column, and in its struggle to escape the 

 insect passes upwards over the stigma, and sweeps away the 

 pollen masses. These it may take to other flowers, when the 

 same process results in a portion of the pollen being retained 

 on the stigma. Mr. Fitzgerald, who observed the process on 

 a many-flowered species of the genus, remarks that notwith- 

 standing the complexity of the arrangement, very few flowers 

 comparatively seemed to be fertilized. 



P. Baptistii is a native of the neighbourhood of Sydney, 

 where it was found in a" tea-tree " swamp by Mr. Baptist, 

 and transferred by him to his Nursery Gardens. 



Bescr. Stem one to two feet high, strict, slender, 1 -flowered. 

 Radical leaves three to six inches long, somewhat rosulate, 

 petioled, lanceolate, acuminate, shining above, the lowest 

 shorter and more ovate and acute or obtuse, the upper 

 passing into sheathing spathaceous bracts with long points. 

 Flowers erect, two inches long, green, with the tips of the 



