SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. ; 189 
nearly related to that of the Malayan Archipelago than to that of Australia. 
Mr. C. B. Clarke, commenting on the author's observations on the buttresses 
of trees, described some remarkable instances which he had seen of this 
singular mode of growth. Mr. J. G. Baker, referring to the Ferns which 
_ had been collected, noticed their affinities and distribution. Mr. RB. A. Rolfe 
commented on three species of Orchids which had been brought home by 
this expedition, all of which were new. Mr. Thiselton Dyer, referring to 
Mr. Lister's report to the British Association on the zoological collections 
from this island, in which it was stated that the character of the avifauna 
was Australian, considered that this was not borne out by an examination of 
the flora, which was decidedly Malayan. 
A paper was then read by Mr. R. A. Rolfe, “ On the sexual forms of 
Catasetum, with special reference to the researches of Darwin and others.” 
The purport of Darwin’s paper (Journ. Linn. Soc. 1862) was to show that 
Catasetum tridentatum had been seen by Schomburgk to produce three 
different kinds of flowers belonging to the same number of supposed genera, 
all on the same plant, and that the three represented respectively the male, 
female, and hermaphrodite states of the species. Mr. Rolfe showed that 
Schomburgk’s remarks applied to two distinct species, C. tridentatum and 
C. barbatum, the females of which resembled each other so closely that 
they were thought to be one and the same, viz. Monacanthus viridis. 
Neither of these, however, belonged to the true plant of that name, which 
was really the female of another species, namely, C. cernuwm—a fact 
hitherto unsuspected. The key of the situation was that the females of 
several species resembled each other very closely, and to three of them the 
name Monacanthus viridis had been applied. 
After some critical remarks by the President and Mr. Bull, a paper by 
Mr. MacOwan was read on some new Cape plants. 
The meeting adjourned to April 4th. 
April 4, 1889.—Mr. Carruruers, F.R.S., President, in the chair. 
Mr. A. C. Lowe was admitted a Fellow of the Society, and Messrs. 
T. W. Cowan and Rupert Vallentin were elected. 
Mr. D. Morris exhibited a specimen of the hymenopterous insect, 
Eulema cayennensis, concerned in the fertilization of Coryanthes macrantha 
(see Criiger, Journ. Linn. Soe. viii. 129), and obtained from Mr. Hart, of 
Trinidad. Referring to the illustrations of the structure of the flower given 
in the ‘Gardeners’ Chronicle’ (xvii. 1882, 593, and xxiii. 1885, 145), 
Mr. Morris explained the process carried out by the insects, chiefly bees, 
in removing the pollinia and subsequently attaching them on the stigma. 
The observations of Criiger had been verified by Mr. Hart in the Botanic 
Gardens, Trinidad. 
Sir Edward Fry exhibited and made some instructive remarks on a 
