THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
OCTOBEK, I 9 *I.] 
HOW PLEIONE HUMILIS PROPAGATES ITSELF. 
By Bn. Ghose, Rajshahi, India. 
I N October, 1920, during my excursions in the neighbourhood of 
Darjeeling, I met a host of Pleione humilis. They love to grow on 
moss-grown trunks of trees, sometimes on the edges of precipitous mossy 
rocks, and rarely on bare sandy soil. I observed a large number of 
youngsters, in various stages of growth, below the elder plants. At first, I 
thought that they were the outcome of self-sown seeds of P. humilis, but I 
asked myself: Were are the young capsules that will mature next season ? 
Curiously enough, I observed no capsule or trace of them anywhere, 
although I examined no less than a hundred plants. Whence came the 
young ones then ? 
Now the old pseudobulbs had a tuft of hair-like appendages at their 
apex, so I asked myself: Was this curious tuft anything to do with the 
multiplication of the plant.. The hairs of the appendage are pale white, 
long and curved. In some, I found the upper portion of the thread pale 
green and the lower portion pale chocolate. Also, the threads were not in 
equal numbers on all the pseudobulbs; they varied considerably. In a, 
sequestered nook I found a pseudobulb with only one thread at its apex. 
This thread was rather large and developed. On examining it through my 
glass I found it to be a miniature pseudobulb with a very small leaf at its- 
apex. This led me to suppose that the threads were the future plants, a 
supposition that was proved beyond doubt in my.next excursion. 
After the fall of the leaves, the appendages appear and continue to 
develop for about a year. They then separate themselves just before the 
advent of the rains, and are caught on the branches or trunks of trees that 
are overgrown with moss, where they root and develop into perfect plants^ 
It thus appears that vegetative reproduction is the rule with this plant. 
Amidst snow and frost, Pleione humilis displays its charming white flowers, 
unseen and uncounted by bees and insects that usually retire at this period 
of the year to the warmer valleys below. Fertilisation and consequent 
production of seed being difficult, Nature has probably adopted this 
vegetative means of reproduction in order to keep the species intact. 
After reading the above very interesting discovery, one cannot help 
feeling convinced that Mr. Ghose has cleared up a problem which has been 
in existence for many years. As far back as May, 1849, SiF Joseph Hooker 
collected specimens at Sikkim of Pleione Hookeriana which had similar 
appendages. He also recorded the same in connection with P. praecox, 
remarking : “ A monstrous state bears imperfectly developed pseudobulbs 
crowned with a crinite tuft of narrow bulbils, each with two setae.” (FL 
