Dr Graham's List of Rare Plants. 421 



was :urprised to see a crowd of small flies immediately rush out at the 

 throat. I raised the flowers into their natural position again, and though 

 I saw, by placing them between me and the light, that very many 

 flies were still in the tube, all very restless, and attempting to escape, 

 not one could climb up the now erect throat I repeated this experi- 

 ment many times, and always with the same result; — in the horizontal 

 position of the flower the flies came out instantly, — in the erect position 

 they were imprisoned. I could not discover with the microscope any 

 cause for this, and am forced to suppose that there may be a particular 

 condition of the surface in the upper part of the tube, from secretion, or 

 Other cause, which prevents the adhesion of the feet of the insects, though 

 they are able to walk along it when horizontal. 

 It is supposed that the confinement of insects in flowers is to effect the im- 

 pregnation of these; and it has been thought, that the decay of their 

 bodies in other parts, as in Dioncea, Nepenthes, and Saracenia, tends to the 

 nourishment of the plant. The first I believe is sometimes true; though 

 I disbelieve the second, I have not, in every supposed instance, the 

 means of disproving it. In the instance under consideration, and, I be- 

 lieve in others, the object seems altogether different. Years ago I ob- 

 served a living worm in several of the decayed leaves of Dion^a musci- 

 cipula, and was induced in consequence to suspect that the capture of 

 certain insects by this plant was not for their destruction, but to provide 

 a proper nidus for their eggs ; and I more confidently believe that this 

 is the case in Aristolochia saccala, for in all the flowers of this plant which 

 I opened, I found many perfect eggs, and many living maggots. Some 

 insects wrap up their eggs in leaves ; to others this instinct is denied, 

 but protection is extended to their race by what, imperfectly understood, 

 has been thought an act of unmixed cruelty. 



Batemania Calleyi, L'mdl. var. 



Batemania Flowers ringent. Sepals spreading, the lateral ones equal, 



and attenuated at the base. Petals broader than the sepals, oblique 

 at the base, adnate to the elongated base of the column. I.abellum 

 articulated with the column, .^-lobed, concave. Column half cylindri- 

 cal, elongated at the base ; clinandrium bordered. Anther small, bl- 

 locular (?) membranous. Pollen-masses 2, 2-lobed on the back, sessile, 



gland triangular Liitdley. 



Batemania Calleyi, Lindl. in Bot. Reg. 1714. 



Description Pseudo-bulbs ovato-pyramidal, subtetragonous, corrugated, 



dark green, with a loose withered bivalvular sheath. Leaves 2, termi- 

 nal, the outer the smaller, coriaceo-membranous, lanceolate, undulate, 

 recurved, dark green above, paler below, having about nine nerves, which 

 are prominent behind, and slightly channelled in front. Racemes several, 

 from the base of the new and not yet enlarged pseudo-bulb, pendulous, 

 many-flowered, zig-zag. Flowers pale rose-coloured, alternate, but open- 

 ing towards one side, rising singly from the axils of large ovato- rhomboid 

 cucullate bractese, pedicellate, the pedicels longer than the bracteje. Se- 

 pals unequal, the two lateral (1 inch long) spathulate, narrow, projecting 

 forward and downwards, divergent, the upper (three-fourths of an inch 

 long) shorter, elliptical, connivent. Petals falcato-oblong, broader than 

 the upper sepal, scarcely shorter than it. Lip equal in length to the 

 petals, concave, 3-lobed, lobes denticulate, rounded, the lateral ones erect, 

 the central recurved and longer, undulate, and marked longitudinally by 

 elevated lines ; disk fleshy, with a ragged lobe beyond its middle. Co- 

 lumn half cylindrical, somewhat clavale, curved forward, with an undu. 

 late crenate wing round its apex, its base projecting forward, there ad- 

 hering to the petals and lateral sepals, and articulated to the labellum at 

 its point. Stamen terminal ; anther-case nearly square, bordered, unilo. 

 cular; pollen-masses 4, subsessile, pear-shaped, the two lower smaller; 

 gland subulate, projecting into the centre of the flower. Stigma trans, 

 versely oblong. Germen sulcate, not twisted, shorter than the pedicel 

 ur sepals. 



