106 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [JuLy-AuGusT, 1919+ 
&c., there is one insect which (being essential to the propagation of the 
species) itis necessary to attract. The contrivances by which the insect is 
attracted are among the most wonderfulin Nature. Below the bulbs hangs 
a flower-stem about two feet long, near the tip of which five. to ten flowers 
are ranged. The texture of these flowers is fleshy, and probably attractive 
to cockroaches, but these vermin are kept away by the ants. It is rather 
difficult to describe the flower in popular language, but the general shape is: 
like a cock, the place of the body being a cup, into which a liquid drips 
from the horn-like process above. When the flowers open, a number of 
briliant green bees are seen swimming in the liquid at the bottom. They 
have been attracted by the smell, which is something like stale meat, and 
flying at that. part which stands above, they fall into the cup, wetting their 
wings so that they cannot fly out. The sides of the cup being deep and 
slippery, and the bee smeared over with the liquid, it cannot climb, but 
moves round and round like a cockroach in a tea cup, sometimes being 
drowned instead of finding the way out. It generally, however, finds its 
way to the only place of exit, where the column which contains the 
essential organs of fertilisation comes near to a gap in the cup. Some force 
is necessary, as the cup is like a spring door, and in pushing through the bee 
passes the stigma, ruptures the box containing the pollen, which, being 
glutinous, sticks to its back, and is carried off. The wings being smeared, 
it cannot fly, but crawls from one flower to another, and in going through 
the same process again carries the pollen and rubs it on the stigma, 
thus fertilising the seeds. Insect fertilisation of Orchids is by no means 
so certain as that of most-other flowers. Seed vessels are rather rare, even 
on common species, not one in a hundred producing perfect seeds ; but as 
one pod will have 20,000, or more, it is not so necessary for each to be 
fertilised, as in some other plants. I have often watched the bees doing what is 
here described, and even caught them with the pollen masses on their backs. 
The species of Coryanthes show the best types of dependence on insect 
friends, but most of the species of Orchids are fertilised by, and many others 
provide homes for them. Diacrium bicornutum has hollow bulbs with 
small holes at the base, where the ants have their doorway. These bulbs 
are the perfection of ants’ nests, their inhabitants being perfectly sheltered 
from rain or enemies. ; 
A CoLony oF OrcuHrIps.— Under the title, ‘‘ The Flora of a single tree,” 
Messrs. H. A. Longman and C. T. White record (Proc. Bot. Soc. Queensl., 
XXIX. Pp. 64-69) a remarkable assemblage of plants growing as epiphytes on 
a single tree of the Bolly Gum (Litsea reticulata), which was recently 
felled in the subtropical rain-forest of the Tambourine Mountain, North 
