Chap. V. MALAXIS PALUDOSA. 133 



be little doubt, had I examined a young enough bud 

 of Malaxis, I should have found a similar minute 

 tongue-shaped cellular projection on the crest of the 

 rostellum. 



The anther opens widely whilst the flower is in 

 bud, and then shrivels and contracts downwards, so 

 that, when the flower is fully expanded, the poUinia 

 are quite naked, with the exception of their broad 

 lower ends, which rest in two little cups formed by 

 the shrivelled anther-cells. This contraction of the 

 anther is represented in fig. D in comparison with fig. 

 C, which shows the state of the anther in a bud. 

 The upper and much pointed ends of the poUinisf 

 rest on, but project beyond, the crest of the rostellum; 

 in the bud they are unattached, but by the time the 

 flower opens they are always caught by the posterior 

 surface of the drop of viscid matter, of which the 

 anterior surface projects slightly beyond the face of 

 the rostellum. That they are caught without any 

 mechanical aid I ascertained by allowing some buds 

 to open in my room. In fig. E the poUinia are shown 

 exactly as they appeared (but not quite in their 

 natural position) when removed by a needle from a 

 specimen kept in spirits of wine, in which the irre- 

 gular little mass of viscid matter had become hardened 

 and adhered firmly to their tips. 



The poUinia consist of two pairs of very thin leaves 

 of waxy pollen ; and the four leaves are formed of 

 angular compound grains which never separate. As 

 the poUinia are almost loose, being retained merely by 

 the adhesion of their tips to the viscid fluid, and by 

 their bases resting in the shrivelled anther-cells, and 

 as the petals and sepals are much reflexed, the poUinia, 

 when the flower is fully' expaiided, would have been 

 liable to be blown away or out of their proper position. 



