IN JAVA. 



83 



seemed never to have had an effective visit paid them by any 

 of the crowd of bees, butterflies, and beetles, among which 

 they blossomed. They were mostly terrestrial species, ophrys 

 chiefly, and were some of them handsome, and very sweetly 

 scented ; yet they might as well have wasted their sweetness 

 on the desert air, for scarcely any of them ever lost their pollen 

 masses, or had these fertilising grains applied to their own 

 stigmas. Since then I have carefully examined all orchids 

 that I have encountered, and have been surprised at the 

 immense numbers which — possessing brilliant, small, and not 

 seldom even large flowers, often highly perfumed — never or 

 very rarely produce seed capsules, but which blossom and 

 fall without benefiting in any way their race. At Kosala I 

 was able to continue my observations both on those growing 

 naturally in the forest as well as on those I reared in Mr. Lash's 

 garden, where, after once taking to the trees they were as 

 nearly as posi'ible under natural conditions. The CymUdium 

 tricolor produces flower-spikes often attaining a length of 

 nearly four feet, studded with florets which are rather sombre 

 in colour; yet it could scarcely be passed without attracting 

 admiration. Of the florets of several plants I counted, seventy- 

 nine per cent, had their poUinia intact, after, to all appearance, 

 having been exposed for a long time, and of those that had 

 lost their pollinia not one stigmatic surface had pollen grains 

 applied to it. On another occasion the whole of the florets 

 examined were unvisited ; while on a third occasion eighty- 

 nine per cent, of the florets examined had their pollinia safe in 

 the anthers, nine per cent, being damaged, either having lost 

 their labellum or having the column eaten by the larva3 of a 

 species of Coceinellidse. One alone was fructified. 



I gathered the rather rare CymUdium stapelioides, growing 

 at a height of 2600 feet above the sea, flowering on a fallen 

 tree. I brought it home, 1000 feet lower, and fixed it to a tree- 

 stem, to which it at once took kindly. None of the flowers 

 which were expanded when I found it were fertilised ; but one 

 of the bulbs had a stem with a solitary capsule. For three 

 weeks the plant remained in the condition in which I found 

 it its large and handsome, though somewhat dull-coloured, 

 flowers retaining their perfect freshness during all this eriod. 

 I then took compassion on its barren state, and fertilised from 



