528 THE FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. [PART TI. 
or occasionally! self-fertilised ; others never self-fertilised, though 
quite fertile to their own pollen if it be applied artificially (565) ; 
flowers absolutely sterile to their own pollen, though fertile not 
only to the pollen of their own species but even to that of other 
species of their own genus (158A, 693); finally species in which 
pollinia and stigma of the same individual act as fatal poisons to 
one another.” 
In regard to the immense number of seeds sometimes produced, 
it may suffice to record an observation of my brother’s, who 
estimated over 1,750,000 seeds in a single capsule of a Mazillaria 
(159). 
Dissemination by wind is favoured by the lightness of the seeds 
and by the peculiar dehiscence of the capsule, which opens by 
three longitudinal slits, the parts remaining connected above or 
below. 
The subject of the cross- and self-fertilisation of Orchids has 
been so fully treated in Darwin’s classical book and elsewhere that 
I may confine myself to notes on those of our native species whose 
visitors have been actually observed, and to some recent additions 
to our knowledge. 
Tribes Lpidendree ? and Vandee. 
Angrecum sesquipedale, Pet. Th.—This plant is a native of 
Madagascar. The spur is longer than that of any other Orchid, 
perhaps than that of any other plant, and according to Darwin 
(155A, p. 198) an insect must have a tongue 10 or 11 inches long 
to reach the honey. Mr. W. A. Forbes has given evidence of the 
existence of such an insect (256). My brother caught a hawkmoth 
(Macrosilia Cluentius) in Brazil which actually had a proboscis 10 
or 11 inches long. I have figured this proboscis in No. 571. 
In Notylia, some species of Oncidiwm, and others, honey is 
secreted by the outer surface of the ovary and by the bracts. Ina 
Cattleya it is secreted for a long period by the young fruit; this 
honey is diligently sought by ants, but of course has no relation 
to the process of fertilisation (Fritz Miiller). 
Gomeza.—My brother observed this orchid fertilised by a bee, 
and saw the fertilised flower produce its capsule. 
Polystachya.—In a small Brazilian species of this genus, the 
1 Neottia nidus-avis frequently, Listera ovata exceptionally (Darwin, 159). 
2 Species of Oncidiwm, Notylia, Gomeza, Stigmatostalix, and Burlingtonia (Fritz 
Miiller, 550; Darwin, 158A, 11. chap. xvii.) 
3 See also No. 34 (Liparis Bowkeri), and No. 609, p. 77, fig. 21 (Corallorhiza 
innata. 
AD eI Pa ag yelp el 
= « 
tn i.e _ 
7% 
“—_ 
“a 
