60 THE JOURNAL OP BOTANY 



ages three-quarters of an inch in length, consisting in its lower 

 half of a tube somewhat inflated below, narrowing above at the 

 point whence the lobes spring. The lobes spread out to meet 

 again in firm union at their tips, where they form a small round 

 button. They enclose a cage-like space. The edges of the lobes 

 are slightly reflexed below, but, above, where they are greenish in 

 colour and firmer in texture, the reflection is much stronger. 

 Externally the tube is of a pale purplish tint, while just below the 

 middle point of the tube there is a regular band or zone, about 

 one-eighth of an inch in width, which is dull white in colour and 

 semi-transparent. 



The general colour of the corolla within is a deep purplish 

 black, the colour being denser in the upper portion of the flower. 

 Upon removing the corolla-lobes and looking within the tubal 

 portion of the flower, the object of the pale white band, seen from 

 the outside, is at once apparent. It is a window which lights up 

 the dark purplish black cuculli and the column which occupy the 

 depths of the tube. At the extreme lower end of the tube is 

 another light which illumines the lower portion of the column 

 from below. The column is very short and crowned by the 

 cuculli, whose limbs arch over it, meeting in the axis of the tube 

 and then again curling outwards. The cuculli are united below 

 into a circlet which clasps the head of the crown like a coronet. 

 Opposite each of the five corpuscula and the stigmatic slits sub- 

 tending them, the encircling portion of the cuculli shows a light- 

 coloured, clear, crescentic portion, bounded upon either side by a 

 tuft of bristly hairs, doubtless directive in their function. The 

 insect thus has a clear, lighted path to the stigmatic slits. The 

 remaining portions of the cuculli are deep purplish brown in 

 colour. A few short, dark, and bristly asperities, mostly collected 

 in the middle of the crescent, give the insect a sure foothold. 



The stigmatic lobes project as an obtuse angle. The anther- 

 tips are fleshy, orange-yellow in colour, and curl inwards towards 

 the axis of the flower. The corpusculum is slightly expanded 

 above, somewhat like a nail-head. Eetinacula are scarcely exis- 

 tent, the pollinia being nearly sessile upon the corpusculum. The 

 pollinia are egg-shaped, with a small transparent keel-like process, 

 whose function it may be to engage the slit-like entrance to the 

 stigmatic cavity. 



In this flower, light is the lure which entices the insect to 

 explore the recesses of the tube. The cage-like superstructure 

 wards off undesirables. Looking within the tube one sees the 

 diverging tips of the cuculli as a dark, star-shaped centre. Outside 

 of the star are the five semi-transparent crescentic portions of the 

 cucullar ring, a shaded spot in the middle of each marking the 

 position of the roughened path to the stigmatic slits and corpus- 

 cula. The combination forms a design as beautiful as the motive 

 is ingenious. 



