80 



but the difference in form of the lip, its habit, and the colour of the 

 psendo bulbs, as well as its constant habitat in the interior woods 

 would appear to bear out a legitimate claim to specific distinction. 

 In connection with the growth of orchids it has been noticed that 

 the presence of ants is apparently necessary to their maintaining a 

 healthy condition, but whether this is in reality due to some action 

 of the ant itself, or to some indirect cause, has not yet been proved,, 

 and investigations are needed to show what is the real influence the 

 ant has upon the health of the plant. It has been suggested that the 

 presence of stinging ants acts as a protection to the plants, but I am 

 inclined to think from recent investigations that the benefit the 

 ants confer on the plant are those of providing it with the mycelium 

 of a fungus to cover its roots, which organism enables it to take up 

 food which would be otherwise unattainable. It may be shown that 

 the ants act as protectors to the plants, as well as providing them 

 with a means of obtaining nutriment, but it is almost certain that 

 the fungus which grows in the material they accumulate around 

 the roots plays a much more important part, by providing the 

 plant with food material. 



146.-BPERUA PALOATA, Aublt. 



"Wallaba." 

 Of this tree there are several specimens in the Gardens. It is a 

 tree common to the Mainland, but so far as I can ascertain it is not 

 indigenous to Trinidad. It is chiefly remarkable for its long pendulous 

 peduncle* and its scimitar-shaped pods. When the latter are ripe the 

 valves separate with a loud noise, and each portion curls up in two or. 

 three whorls forming a hollow tube of some six inches in length. 

 The propulsion exerted by the curling up of the valves casts the 

 seed to some distance from the tree. The flowers are very sweet 

 scented and contain a large proportion of nectar, so that they are 

 largely visited by insects, and, as recorded in my Annual Report for 

 1889, it is also visited by Glossonycteris Geoffroyi, Gray, a small bat, 

 with a curiously elongated tongue, especially fitting it for the 

 extraction of the juices secreted by the flowers of this and similar 

 plants. The bats flit about the flowers at night in the same way as 

 the nocturnal Lepidoptera, and the animals were at first mistaken 

 for these creatures. Specimens were captured with a muslin net 

 identical in shape with those used by naturalists for the capture of 

 butterflies and other insects. 



Sometimes six feet in length. 



