CARDAMOMS 343 



proportion of the flowers are unfertilised. The flowers 

 of this plant are fertilised by insects, and it frequently 

 happens with plants in the tropics that the first 

 flowers produced by a plant, especially if new to its 

 locality, fail to set fruit, as the insects which can and 

 do fertilise it appear not to have found the flowers. 



There does not seem to be any record from Ceylon 

 or India as to what insects fertilise the flowers, but it is 

 probably effected by some species of bee or possibly a 



fly- 



In the Singapore Botanic Gardens I found a Dipteron 

 visiting the flowers, from which it was sucking honey, 

 licking with its long tongue the purple streaks on the 

 lip and the base of the stamen. The fly was \ in. 

 long, mostly dull ochre yellow, the eyes, centre of 

 thorax, and six longitudinal lines -down the abdomen 

 black. It is one of the fruit flies (Dacidae). I did not 

 see it actually fertilise the flowers. 



The importance of the attendance of the fertilising 

 insect at the right time must be very great, and its 

 absence probably accounts for the smallness of the crops 

 on some occasions. 



The plants flower somewhat irregularly in Kanara 

 in April and May ; in Ceylon almost all the year 

 round, but chiefly from January to May. Those grown 

 in the Singapore Gardens flowered in the early part 

 of the year, but continued rather irregularly till much 

 later. 



The fruits form in June and July, and ripen in 

 August, or the beginning of September, lasting till April 

 in Ceylon, from September to December being the 

 heaviest cropping time. In Bombay they chiefly ripen 

 in September and October. 



They are said to require light showery weather 

 during the season of flowering ; absence of this causes a 

 failure to crop, and Mollison recommends protecting the 

 growing fruit by a light covering of leaves and brush- 

 wood when the rains are heavy during ripening. 



As the flowers on the scape do not appear simul- 



