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reach vines on isolated spots very far from the nearest growing 
places? | 
During all the time I observed fajlesia specimens, I never 
saw anything, that could suggest, that higher animals of any 
sort feed on the buds or flowers or in any way interfered with 
their development or played a direct role in the dispersion of: 
their seeds. Many, many times however I was able to establish 
the fact, that creatures of some kind have great liking for the 
ovula of the plant and the contents of the ovary as a whole. 
Experiments made by me and repeated several times have 
shown the following facts: Wounds inflicted upon a bud and 
affecting the wall of the column will not kill the individual; 
the wound seems to heal and for months after the tissues 
remain fresh and develop in their natural way. If on the other 
hand the wound, however small, pierces through the wall of 
the column and opens up the cavity of the ovary, this will 
become emptied after a very short time; after a couple of days, 
perhaps earlier, there will not be an ovulum or a trace of the 
septa left, whereas the real walls of the ovary are not damaged 
in any way. 
I have often found buds, about 12 cM. across, that looked 
quite normal and still rested on their birth places in their na- 
tural position, but which on closer examination proved to be 
loosened from the vine upon which they had grown, and to 
have an absolutely empty ovarian cavity. At the under side of 
the bud a circular split. was found around the place, where the 
cupula had been fixed upon the vine root; so the bud was 
disconnected from the vine, upon which nothing was left but a 
small coin shaped plate of the central part of the cupula. 
It is obvious, that only very small creatures can have been 
able to penetrate into the interior along this narrow passage, 
and I think we are right in first fixing our attention upon ants 
and termites as the possible intruders. Never however have I 
found an ant in such emptied ovaries, but a couple of times I 
found termites, and once the emptied bud formed a real vault 
above a canal ascending from a subterraneans termite nest. The 
moment, I turned the bud, I found the cavity actually filled 
