THE FLORA OF SINGAPORE. 33 



Chestnuts. Sindora and Kurrimia are particularly attractive to 

 them and the roar of their wings can be heard often at some 

 distance from the tree. The chief of these flies is a black Musca 

 with red eyes. The flowers of fly-fertilized plants are usually small 

 and green or whitish, generally possessing an unpleasant odor. 

 Smaller herbaceous plants growing in dark shady woods often 

 have deep brownish purple flowers sometimes with an odor of 

 carrion, at others sweet and aromatic, such are Amorphophallus, 

 Tltottca, Tacca and many orchids. These are also fly -fertilized. 

 Many trees produce masses of white flowers in large panicles or 

 corymbs. These are very attractive to butterflies and bees, 

 such are many of the Eugenias, Evodia, Rhodamnia, and Melan- 

 norrhea. I have noticed as showing the bearing of the color of 

 the flowers on insect visitors, that while Eu/enia lineata with 

 corymbs of white flowers attracts innumerable butterflies and 

 bees and the pollen-eating flies (S/jrpha), another species of Euge- 

 nia with apple-green flowers, which is growing close by was 

 not visited either by butterflies or bees, but by flies similar to those 

 which visit the oaks. Pink flowers are not so common, and are 

 usually visited by bees, as are the deep red blossoms of Cratoxy- 

 lon arbore>:cens, Gomphia Jfookeri, and Eurycoma. Scarlet and 

 bright reds are rare in Singapore except in introduced plants, 

 but we have also the beautiful Aeschynanthus, Rhododendron, 

 some Lomnt/ri, and some species of Hornstedtia. The red flowers 

 are most attractive to the Sun-birds, and to butterflies. Bright 

 yellow flowers are chiefly to be met with in open country especi- 

 ally near the sea; such are Wedelia, Xyris, Philydrum, Utricularia 

 (most), Wormia, Timonius, and Gomphia sumatrana. The rarest 

 color of all is blue, which is also to be met with almost exclu- 

 sively in open spots. Burmannia coelesti-s, Commelina, Cyanotis, 

 Urticularia affi.nis, Ecoh-ulus, Monochoria, Desmodiu n heterophyl- 

 lum, are almost the only native blue flowers here. 



Visitors to the tropics are often surprised by the apparent 

 paucity and inconspicuousness of the flowers. This is partly 

 due to the enormous proportion of foliage, which conceals the 

 flowers, but the fact that the greater number of our flowers are 

 adapted for fertilization by Diptera and small Hymenoptera, the 

 most abundant insects in the forests, and are consequently small 

 and green or whitish, accounts to a large extent for the small 



