See ae a 
Octoser, 1923.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 313 
CALEANA MAJOR. 
F the many Orchids beautifully figured by R. D. Fitzgerald in his 
Australian Orchids, Caleana major possesses several interesting 
features. This species, originally described by R. Brown, in 1810, is found 
on knolls of ironstone gravel and sandstone ridges, generally close to large 
gum trees, and in the very poorest of hard soil. It differs from most Orchids 
‘by flowering in the heat of the Australian summer (December), and Fitzgerald 
stated that with its red-brown leaf, wiry stem, red-brown flowers, peculiarity 
of form, resembling in body, wings and head, a large ant, and its power of 
suddenly curling its neck and hiding its head within its body, it seems to 
depart from the vegetable to join the insect world. 
In the flower of C. major, the column is expanded so as to form a cup, 
and the labellum, which resembles the lid of a claret-jug, either covers this 
‘Cup, or stands up ready to fall and close it. In many ways the flower 
suggests a trap, and the method of its fertilisation was for a long while a 
mystery to Fitzgerald. His first experiment was with a blow-fly, hung by 
a thread and let swing against the column. But the blow-fly was either too 
restive or, by grasping the cup as well as the lid, prevented its weight from 
being felt by the labellum. Lady-birds were then tried as being more 
tractable. One of these insects was induced to climb up a match till it 
teached the end, when it readily left the wood for the labellum. 
Immediately the labellum descended and the Lady-bird was fairly caught 
in thecup. It remained imprisoned for about two minutes, and then forced 
itself out without fertilising the flower or removing the pollen. 
To help nature, and make the flowers more attractive in the proper part, 
Fitzgerald placed a little honey on the front of the labellums of a dozen 
flowers, and was soon rewarded by the capture of several flies, only two of 
which fertilised any flowers. Six hours was the longest time noted for the 
imprisonment of a fly, but the labellum never rose until the insect escaped. 
In 1878, Fitagerald visited a rocky knoll on which he had found 105 
plants, and 127 flowers open at one time. He never saw insects about them, 
mever found one captured, and on very few occasions found a flower closed. 
Though the flowers had been in bloom from October 20th to December 
20th, only four capsules of seed were formed, and on December 30th most 
of the plants had withered and only a stray flower remained. 
BULBOPHYLLUM DISCIFLORUM.—This species was introduced by Messrs. 
Linden, with whom it flowered in October, 1894. It is a native of Siam, 
and the sepals are united at the base into a broad flat disc, hence the 
Specific name. 
