Vol. X, No. 10.] Nates on Typhonium trilobatum. 423 



[X.S.] 



the passage into the tube of the spathe in a potted Ghet-Kachu 

 are as follows : — 



May 12, 3 p.m. Spathe begins to open. 

 1913. 5 p.m. Spathe completely open. 



6 pm. Has started giving off a strong unpleasant 



scent, and the constriction is open 

 forming a passage into the lower part. 

 9 p.m. The constricted part appears to have 



widened still more, and the slender 

 bare portion of the spadix, below the 

 staminate flowers, is resting against the 

 spathe and so the opening is as little 

 blocked by it as possible. 

 11-45 p.m. Lobes of the spathe begin to wrap round 



the spadix at the constricted part. 

 11-55 p.m. Scent not strong, lobes more closely 



wrapped round and the opening is 

 almost completely closed. 

 May 13, 2 p.m. Completely closed; no space for even a 



very small insect to pass up or down at 

 the constricted part. 

 8 a.m. Spathe still closed. 

 5 p.m. Remained closed all day. 

 8 p.m. The margins of the spathe at the narrow 



part have begun to unfold and the pas- 



sage is reopening. 

 Midnight. Opening is almost as wide as it was in the 



first stage, and there is a collection of 

 pollen at the mouth of the opening. 



On examining other Ghet-Kachus, in various stages of 

 flowering, I found that the time of opening and closing of 

 the spathe is, on the whole, very regular, and that the spathe, 

 in its first stage, captures quite a number of beetles by about 

 9 p.m. 



Unfortunately beetles seldom came to potted Ghet-Kachus 

 kept in an upper verandah, but when the plants were taken 

 down into the garden, the beetles were soon captured. 



The beetles remain among the pistillate flowers during 

 their term of imprisonment in the jjpcond stage, but by the 

 evening, when the spathe has reopened in its third and last 

 stage, the beetles are most anxious to make good their escape, 

 and soon crawl out of the mouth of the tube and up the lower 

 staminate portion of the spadix, and so become covered with 

 pollen before flying away, only to be deceived and recaptured, 

 by another spathe in the first stage. While among the pistil- 

 late flowers of the fresh spathe the pollen with which they are 

 covered adheres to the sticky stigmas, and thus cross-pollina- 





