m JAVA. . 83 



seemed never to have bad an effective visit paid them by any 

 of the crowd of bees, butterflies, and beetles, among which 

 they blossomed. They were mostly terrestrial species, ophrijs 

 chiefly, and were some of them handsome, and very sweetly 

 scented ; yet they might as well have wasted their sweetness 

 on the desert air, for scarcely any of them ever lust their pollen 

 masses, or had these fertilising grains applied to their own 

 stigmas. Since then I have carefully examined all orchids 

 that 1 have encountered, and have been sur2)rised at the 

 immense numbers which — possessing brilliant, small, and not 

 seldom even large flowers, often highly perfumed— never or 

 very rarely produce seed capsules, but which blossom and 

 fall without benefiting in any way their race. At Kosala I 

 was able to continue my observations both on those growing 

 naturally in the forest as well as on those I reared in Mr. Lash's 

 garden, where, after once taking to the trees they were^ as 

 nearly as possible under natural conditions. The Cymlidium 

 tricolor produces flower-spikes often attaining a length of 

 nearly four feet, studded with florets which are rather sombre 

 in colour; yet it could scarcely be passed without attracting 

 admiration. Of the florets of several plants I counted, seventy- 

 nine per cent, had their pollinia intact, after, to all appearance 

 havincr been exposed for a long time, and of those that had 

 lost their pollinia not one stigmatic surface had pollen grains 

 applied to it. On another occasion the whole of the florets 

 examined were unvisited ; while on a third occasion eighty- 

 nine per cent, of the florets examined had their polUnia safe m 

 the anthers, nine per cent, being damaged, either having lost 

 their labellum or having the column eaten by the larva; oi a 

 species of CoecmeUidie. One alone was fructified. 



tapelioides. 



at 



tree. I brouglit it home, 1000 feet Iu« er, and iised it to a tree- 

 stem, to whiek it at onee took kindly. None of the flowers 

 whieii were expanded when I found it were lertihsod ; but one 



of the bnlbs bad a stem with a solitary eapsnle ^ »■- »I"e« 



weeks the plant remained in the eondifonin which I found 



it, its large and handsome, though somewhat J« "-^ol™ ^^. 



flowers retaining their perfeet freshness dunng all th,s e od. 

 I then took eompassion on its barren state, and fertilised from 



