NOVEMBER, 1I910.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 323 
is a polymorphic and very remarkable genus of over twenty species, and 
ranges from Mexico to Brazil and Peru. The flowers are borne in pendulous 
racemes, and the petals are often united to the column for some distance, 
while the lip is a curious organ, which has been likened to an insect 
sprawling on its back, or to a chicken trussed for the spit. Several of the 
species are frequently met with in gardens. 
Stanhopea is a remarkable genus, containing upwards of 40 species, and 
ranging from Mexico to Brazil and Peru. They are common in gardens— 
indeed most of them have been described from garden materials—and they 
would be more popular but for the fact that the flowers are rather fugacious. 
The flowers are produced in short pendulous racemes, and have large 
membranous sepals and petals, white or yellow in colour, often spotted 
with reddish purple, and a very complex fleshy lip, the base being variously 
saccate, the front lobe often articulate, and the side lobes represented by a 
pair of curved fleshy horns, while the column is very long and gracefully 
curved. Coryanthes represents a further stage in the specialisation of 
organs, and is one of the most remarkable genera known. It ranges from 
Mexico to Peru and Brazil, and upwards of a dozen species have been 
described. They closely resemble Stanhopea in habit, and the sepals and 
petals are very large and membranous, but the lip has been modified in 
structure to a remarkable degree. It is stalked, and may be compared toa 
bucket or milking-pail suspended below the flower, with a hood above. 
And the resemblance is not illusory, for as soon as the flowers expand a 
pair of oblong glands are seen at the base of the column, which exude water 
drop by drop into the bucket beneath, while the hood or helmet—from 
which the genus takes its name—also fulfils a special purpose. The flowers 
are fertilised by bees, which are attracted by some special tissue beneath 
the hood, but in alighting on the highly slippery surface they soon fall into 
the water beneath. Being unable to crawl up the slippery sides, they have 
to struggle through a narrow opening beneath the apex of the column, in 
which they invariably bring away the pollen masses. Undeterred by their 
involuntary bath, they soon fly away to another flower, and, on repeating 
the process, leave the pollinia behind on the viscid surface of the stigma. 
It is a remarkable case of adaptation, but the process may invariably be 
seen whenever the flowers appear in their native habitat. It cannot beseen 
in our houses because of the absence of the special kind of bee. 
Catasetidz forms another very distinct and natural group, ranging from 
Mexico to Brazil and Peru, and containing three genera and over 120 
species. They are very distinct from Stanhopiez in habit, in which respect 
they recall the genus Cyrtopodium, though the flowers are much more 
highly specialised. It is highly probable that they have arisen from some 
ancestor having a very similar general structure, while Stanhopiez arose 
