BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 351 
flowers variegated with red, and white flowers marked with 
red growing on the plant at the same time. I cannot tell 
_ Whether the yellow or white flowers are mutable, they remain 
soon the specimen when it is dry. We have two very curious 
genera of Orchide@, one I call the Fly-catching,* and the other 
. the Hinged Orchis. Of the fly-catching there is but one species; 
it is very small, with a single lanceolate leaf, the flower-stalk 
growing about three inches high, the lower part of the flower 
forms a boat-shaped box, and the upper part a lid which ex- 
actly fits it. When the flower expands, the lid rises up and 
turns back, so that it (the inside of the lid) becomes the 
highest part of the flower; the inside of this lid resem- 
bles an insect, and seems in some way to attract insects, for the 
minute one alights on it, it acts like the stigma in Stylidium, 
turning fairly round, and enclosing the insect in the lower 
part of the flower as in a box. In this Orchis the anthers 
are placed in the lower part of the flower, and the upper 
Part (the lid), which I think must be the stigma, has to pass 
. and repass them as the flower opens and shuts; when touched 
vith any thing the lid instantly closes, but soon opens again 
if it catches nothing; when it captures an insect, it re- 
mains shut longer than I have continued to watch it. The 
Hinged Orchis; of which I have found three species, are 
scarcely less curious in their economy. The divisions of the 
perianth. in this genus are five in number, they are narrow 
and apparently only useful to protect the upper lip and the 
hinged part, which in this genus is the lower part. of the 
flower; four of the divisions of the perianth, as soon as the - 
flower expands, fall down by the side of the germen, one _ 
continuing to stand up behind the upper lip. . You will peri 
ceive in the specimens I send you, the remarkable hinge in - 
the middle of the insect-like part; when the wind or any 
thing else moves the Orchis to one side, the insect-like por- 
n falls against the anthers. At the time the little many- - 
* Caleana nigrita, Lindl. Lipik a 
gt ri hp De d hep. ek. is 
