340 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
this was not very strong. No bees came in the afternoon or next day.” — 
L.c., 1893, pp. 169, 170. 
These remarks recall the observations of Crueger, made many years 
previously in Trinidad, Speaking of a bee which visited the flowers of 
Coryanthes macrantha, Stanhopea grandiflora, and Gloxinia maculata, all 
three having the same perfume, he remarks :— 
“. . » Some cellular tissue which these humble-bees gnaw off exists also 
in the hypochil of the lip of Coryanthes macrantha, They are seen in great 
numbers disputing with each other for a place on the edge of the hypochil, 
Partly by this contest, partly, perhaps, intoxicated by the matter they are 
indulging in, they tumble down into the ‘ bucket,’ half-full of a fluid secreted 
by organs situated at the base of the column. They then crawl along in the 
water towards the anterior side of the bucket, where there is a passage for 
them between the opening of this and the column. If one is early on the 
look-out, as these Hymenoptera are early risers, one can see in every flower 
how fecundation is performed. The humble-bee, in forcing its way out of 
its involuntary bath, has to exert itself considerably, as the mouth of the 
epichil and the face of the column fit together exactly, and are very stiff and 
elastic. The first bee, then, which is immersed will have the gland of the 
pollen mass glued to its back. The insect then generally gets through the 
Passage, and comes out with this peculiar appendage, to return nearly 
immediately to its feast, when it is generally precipitated a second time into 
the bucket, passing out through the same opening, and so inserting the 
pollen masses into the stigma while it forces its way out, and thereby im- 
pregnating either the same or some other flower. I have often seen this ; 
and sometimes there are so many of these humble-bees assembled that there 
is a continual procession of them through the passage specified.”—Crueger 
in Fourn. Linn. Soc., viii. p. 130. 
_ The genus Coryanthes is widely diffused in tropical America, and as the 
flowers are incapable of self-fertilisation we can easily see how important 
are the visits of the bees which we have just considered. In fact, the whole 
structure of these remarkable flowers is evidently arranged so as to secure 
the visits of the insects, and the consequent fertilisation of the flowers in the 
particular way pointed out, and the fact should increase our interest in these 
singular plants, which are too seldom seen in our collections. 
CULTURE OF BOLLEAS AND PESCATOREAS, 
: __ A note on the culture of these interesting plants, to which we called 
__ attention at pages 14 and 277, appears in a recent number of the Reichen- 
f » from which we condense the following remarks :— 
“ 
‘ ee 
