males, surely evidence that scent plays a part in this re- 
markable relationship between orchid and insect, not- 
withstanding the reports that Cryptostylis leptochila is 
odorless or emits only a faintly perceptible odor. 
After studying such subtle modifications, we are re- 
minded of Darwin’s words: ‘‘Unless the flowers [of or- 
chids] were by some means rendered attractive, they 
would be cursed with perpetual sterility. ”’ 
A glance at the strange labellum of this Cryptostylis, 
modified out of all proportion to the almost thread-like 
sepals and petals, with its double row of dark glistening 
glands that gleam in the hot sunshine loved by the wasp, 
is perhaps sufficient to justify the theory of an attraction 
based on the resemblance of the flower to a female Lis- 
sopimpla. The male wasp always assumes the reverse po- 
sition with the head facing the apex of the strongly 
sigmoid labellum. It opens the tip of the abdomen, ap- 
parently fastens the claspers to the fleshy folds of the 
labellum at the base and thrusts the aedoeagus into the 
stigma, when seminal fluid is ejected. In the meantime 
the tip of the abdomen has been pressed against the vis- 
cid dise of the rostellum and when the insect departs it 
earries the pollinia fastened to the posterior part of the 
abdomen. Tarlton Rayment in his recent book **A Clus- 
ter of Bees’’ gives a brief description of this phenomenon 
and thuslends the weight of his entomological knowledge 
to the conclusions at which Mrs. Coleman arrived. 
One might be led to expect that Cryptostylis lepto- 
chila, through its association with Lissopimpla semipunc- 
tata, would exhibit a distribution similar to that exhibited 
by the insect. But this is not so. Lissopimpla is found 
in all the Australian States and also in New Zealand, 
while Cryptostylis leptochila is confined to Victoria and 
New South Wales, its capacity for spreading being limited 
by those factors that govern endemism. Yet if the orchid 
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