350 Mr A. D. Webster 07i the 



or perhaps a week after the flowers open, become swollen, 

 or the particles of pollen disunited so as to protrude 

 slightly beyond the sharp upper edge of the stigma. At 

 the same time, or later on, the pollen becomes re- 

 markably friable, and before the plant withers, either 

 spontaneously or by the action of the wind, falls on the 

 stigma and other parts of the flower. The peculiar 

 position of the pollen masses — hanging directly above 

 the stigmatic surface — ensures this the more readily. 

 That the pollen masses become detached and fall apart 

 is beyond dispute, as I have on many occasions found 

 the grains scattered over the leaves, flower, and stem of 

 the plant, as well as, in one or two instances, noticed 

 the pollen masses still within their cells, but with the 

 corners broken off and lying on the stigmatic surface. 

 This breaking up of the pollen masses may be spon- 

 taneous, but it is materially assisted by both wind and 

 rain. 



On examining numbers of the plant, I have found it a 

 general rule that the entire pollinia, or a large part of 

 them, have not been removed from such flowers as bear 

 well-filled capsules. Now this of itself seems to me 

 to indicate sulf-fertilisation by particles of the pollen 

 falling on the stigma, for it is quite evident that if 

 wasps (the only insect, so far as is known, that in this 

 country does fertilise the plant) visited and impreg- 

 nated the flower, they could hardly have avoided removing 

 the pollinia. To make sure, I examined several withered 

 flowers with swollen ovaries on difi'erent plants, and was 

 surprised to flnd that in most cases remnants of the 

 tlien musty pollen could be distinctly detected within the 

 shrivelled anther. 



After reading the above remarks, one is naturally led 

 to ask : — Why, if Einpactis latifolia is so imperfectly 

 fertilised, is the plant so abundant ? 



This I can only answer as follows: — (1) Nature, as 

 if to make up for the small production of seed, has endowed 

 this plant, unlike the generality of our native orchids, 

 with special facilities for the perpetuation of its race. 

 The original roots do not, as in most other orchids, die ofi" 

 annually, but serve for collecting nutriment for the 



