Chap. VI. ACEOPEEA, AND SOME ALLIED GENERA. 171 



flowers being fertilised with pollen from a distinct 

 plant. 



With respect to Stanhopea, Dr. Criiger says* that 

 in the West Indies a bee (Euglossa) often yisits the 

 flowers for the sake of gnawing the label lum, and he 

 caught one with a poUinium attached to its back ; but 

 he adds that he cannot understand how the pollen- 

 masses are inserted into the narrow mouth of the stigma. 

 With Stanhopea oculata I found that the poUinia could 

 almost always be attached to my naked or gloved 

 finger, by gently sliding it down the concaTe surface 

 of the arched column ; but this occurred only within a 

 short time after the expansion of the flowers, whilst 

 they are highly odoriferous. By again sliding my 

 finger down the column, the poUinia were almost 

 always rubbed off by the sharp edge of the stigmatic 

 chamber, and were left adhering close to its entrance. 

 Flowers thus .treated occasionally, though rarely, 

 yielded capsules. The removal of the poUinia from 

 my finger seemed to depend on the existence of a 

 point projecting beyond the viscid disc, and which I 

 suspect is specially adapted for this purpose. If this 

 be so, the pollen-masses must emit their tubes without 

 being inserted into the stigmatic chamber. I may 

 add that the pollen-masses shrink very little by being 

 thoroughly dried, and could not in this state be easily 

 inserted. 



The entrance into the stigma is in like manner, 

 as I hear from Fritz MuUer, t so much contracted in 

 Cirrhsea and Notylia, which belong to another sub- 

 division of the Vandese, that the poUinia can be inserted 



* ' Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot.' vol. translation of the first edition of 



viii. 1864, p. 130. Bronn haa this work, 



described the structure of Stan- t ' Bot. Zeitung,' 1868, p. 630. 

 hnpea devomeusis, in his German 



