220 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [JuLY, 1909. 
with branched feathery stigmas to catch the pollen floating about in the air. 
The first plants to feel the want of wind would be the smaller plants, under 
trees, which would be forced to adopt some other method of pollination. 
Our wild Arum, and many flowers of tropical forests, attracted lower insects 
and trapped them often by the aid of acarrion smell. The insects were 
only set free when pollination was over. Flowers adapted for higher 
insects had bright colours and scent. Many of the higher flowers— 
Violets, Snapdragon, Honeysuckle, and others—could only be approached 
by insects in one direction. They were also constructed in many cases 
to exclude from the honey any insects that were not likely to pollinate 
the flowers. The long-tubed honeysuckle was suited to the long-tongued 
hawk moths. Orchids were constructed so as to gum the pollen on to 
the head of the visiting insect. This required such a nice adjustment 
between the insect and the flower that it ended with one Orchid only 
fitting a single species of bee, butterfly or moth. If the special insect 
died out, the flowers would no longer be pollinated. The Bee-Orchid 
was shown as an instance of this excessive specialisation. It had apparently 
all the mechanism for gumming the pollen on to the head of an insect, . 
yet the pollen was never removed, but fell out, and was blown bythe wind 
on to the stigma of the same flower.—/Journal of Horticulture. 
ERIA RHODOPTERA. 
A striking Eria has just flowered at Kew, which was described in 1892 
under the name of Eria Laucheana (Kranzl. in Gard. Chron., 1892, i. 
p- 809). It flowered in the collection of Prince Liechtenstein, at Eisgrab, 
Moravia, and was dedicated to the head gardener, Mr. Lauche. It was said 
to have a raceme about half as large as in E. Dillwynii, Hook. (Bot. Mag., t. 
4163), and a straw-coloured inflorescence and bracts, with the petals and 
side lobes of the lip deep black-purple. The locality was not mentioned. 
The Kew plant was received from Heidelberg, in 1904, when very small. 
There is an earlier Eria rhodoptera, described by Reichenbach in 1882 
(Gard. Chron., 1882, ii. p. 586), which flowered in Messrs. Henderson & S ons’ 
Pineapple Nursery, at Maida Vale, and which from the description I believe 
to be identical. Reichenbach remarked: ‘The raceme has flowers much like 
those of Eria bractescens, of a pallid white ochre colour, with purple petals, 
and purple side lobes of the lip. For such an Eria it looks uncommonly gay, 
as its vivid colours are rather scarce in that yery wide genus.”’ In this case 
also the habitat was not recorded. In May, 1895, Messrs. Sander sent to 
Kew an Eria for determination, without record of habitat, which belongs 
to the same species as that now flowering at Kew, and, fortunately, it is 
now possible to clear the matter up. In 1892 a dried specimen of an Eria 
