248 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [AUGUST, 1913- 
stand upon, yet no American species has the typical Angraecum structure. 
We may conclude by saying that the Catalogue forms an important 
addition to our knowledge of Tropical African botany, and we may 
congratulate Mr. and Mrs. Talbot on their excellent work when residing 
in the Oban district. 
BEE VISITING CYPRIPEDIUM REGINZ. 
WHILST examining the flowers of the well-known hardy Cypripedium 
Reginz (spectabile) in the Alpine house at Kew, a small humble-bee flew 
by, returning in a few seconds and, without any hesitation, alighted upon 
the front part of the pouch and immediately entered the hole in the centre. 
On finding that it was trapped it made frantic efforts to return the same way, 
but the infolded margin prevented it from doing so. After making the 
circuit of the pouch a number of times it then crawled up to the base of 
the column and struggled violently to get out by way of one of the small 
openings on either side of the column. At first the hole was much too 
small to allow of this, and for quite two minutes the bee was half in and 
half outside the hole. All the while it was struggling to get out it set up 2 
shrill noise with its wings. After a time it became exhausted, remained 
quiet for a minute or so, and then recommenced its struggles. This time 
it succeeded in releasing itself, and I then saw that it was covered-on the 
head and back with a lot of the viscid pollen. Before it flew away it set 
about vigorously clearing off the mass of pollen with its feet, leaving only a 
trace of the mass which was attached to its back in the first instance. 
Although I remained for some time afterwards in the vicinity of the flower 
it did not return. C. P. RAFFILL. 
(This affords an interesting glimpse of what takes place in a state of 
nature, for Hermann Miiller has shown that the European C. Calceolus is 
visited by five species of humble-bee, belonging to the genus Andrena, these 
being attracted by the colour and perfume of the flowers, and by the hairs 
lining the floor of the pouch, which are sometimes covered with drops of 
honey. He observed the efforts of the bees to escape by the orifice through 
which they entered, but, finding this impossible, they climbed up to one of 
the lateral openings at the base of the pouch, thus getting smeared with 
the pollen, this in turn being left upon the stigma of the next flower visited- 
It appears that even here the bees do not escape without a struggle, and 
those that are too large or two weak to push their way through the opening 
often perish from hunger within the pouch. He had often found Andrena. 
parvula and several species of flies dead within the pouch. It would be 
interesting to know the bee which fertilises the flower of C. Regine in 4 
wild state, or indeed any of the North American species, which form a very 
interesting group.—Ep. | 
