IN JAVA. 85 



109 were withering with intact anthers^ or had lost their pol- 

 len and were unfertilised, 245 had fallen off, six only had 

 produced capsules. These are not selected instances, but the 

 result of the (;xamination of five plants as they occur in my 

 note-book. I have several times found in various species of 

 Cdlanihe, specimens which at first I thought to be cleisto- 

 (jamously fertilised, where the ovules were enlarged in the 

 ovary, and the flowers quite open ; but close examination has 

 shown that this is the effect of the irritation of a small species 

 of Hymenoptera — a cynips probably. 



Mr. Darwin, in his 'Fertilisation of Orchids,' enumerates 

 but four instances of self-fertilisation as coming under his 

 observation, namely : in Ophrys apifera, by the falling forward 

 of its own pollinia, which are then, by the agency of the wind, 

 brought into contact with the stigma — the plant being capable 

 also of cross fertilisation ; in Peristylis viridis, which is pos- 

 sible to be self-fertilised by its own pollen from the head of 

 the visiting insect; in Cephalantliera grandiflora, which is 

 perpetually self-fertilised by its pollen grains that rest against 

 the upper sharp edge of the stigma thrusting down their 

 pollen tubes into the ovary ; lastly, DendroUum chrysantlmm, 

 which may possibly be self-fertilised by its own peculiar acro- 

 batic pollen. In the additional instances here given, some 

 will be found to be singular and different, I believe, from 

 any hitherto recorded.* 



The genus Phajus is an excoedingly handsome and attrac- 

 tive coterie of orchids growing iu open and sunny places, 

 throwing up from their large broad root leaves, stout erect 

 flower-stalks, one and a-half to two feet in height, crowded 

 with florets. The expanded sepals of Phajus Blumei mea- 

 sure laterally from tip to tip twelve to fourteen centimetres. 

 Their external margins are white and interiorly rich chest- 

 nut brown; the labellum is of a beautiful bright purple 

 magenta colour, margined with yellowish white. Its fringed 

 mouth forms a broad landing-stage for passing insects, for 

 whose benefit brightly coloured ridges point the way in vain 

 to the nectary, as, unfortunately for the visitor, it rarely cou- 



* From here to the top of page 96 may be passed over by the general 

 reader not interested in tljis subject made so fascinating by the studies of 

 Mr. Darwin given in the volume referred to above. 



