192 



the lateral petals move away the lip is left caught lightlj^ against its 

 coivex swelling, and held folded down as the lateral petals placed it. 

 A touch now frets the lip and causes it to springup against thecolumn, 

 its right shoulder being under the pollinia. Pressed thus against the 

 column it remains while the flower withers on the following morning. 

 In withering the lateral petals curve inwards until their tips meet ; 

 the lateral stpals rise up until they touch the lower side of the lip; 

 the dorsal sepal follows ; and the life of the flower is over. 



It has no scent as far as the human nose can test it. It has no 

 free honey. Its colours are lemon yellow to yellowish green with 

 deep crimson markings on the lip : and the swollen parts of the lateral 

 sepals are maroon. 



How it is fertilised it is not possible as yet to state, but it would 

 seem likely that insects of rather small size, attracted to the flower, 

 are trapped by the up-springing of the lip against the coloumn, 

 and in struggling to free themselves effect pollination. Sections 

 through the swollen parts of the lateral sepals show that this tissue 

 contains large cells with raphides towards the outer surface, and 

 small cells towards the inner. 



The mechanism is most curious; the lip is a trigger put into 

 place by the lateral petals, and held there by one of the lateral sepals. 

 This alone makes it of unusual interest ; but the interest is 

 heightened by the angle at which the flower stands, by the movement 

 out of the median plane of the column, and by the movement towards 

 it of a lateral sepal. 



Hapaline appendiculata, Ridley. 



A third interesting plant brought back from Sarawak by the 

 Assistant Curator is Hapdliiie appetidiculala with variegated leaves. 

 Mr. Anderson had found it plentiful near Bau. It flowered in culti- 

 vation in the end of May. 



Hapaline appendiculata difters from the two other known 

 Hapalines in having an appendix to its spadix, which slightly over- 

 lops the narrow white spathe. Is is the most southern representative 

 of a rather badly constituted genus. It was once before in cultivation 

 in the Gardens, but either was lost or is bedded out in some unrecorded 

 nook under the trees. The specimen grown earlier had dark green 

 leaves without the conspicuous pale green cloudy markings of the 

 new one. The leaves take a peculiar attitude, the petiole bending so 

 as to place them beyond the rim of the plant pot in which they may 

 be grown. 



I. H. BURKILL. 



