July, 1940 The Queensland Naturalist 
87 
is rose pink. The segments are narrow and acuminate. The 
labellum is very beautiful. It is narrower than in other 
forms, and is more deeply 3-lobed. The lateral lobes are 
often stained with purple. The calli of the disk are rela- 
tively large, orange-coloured deepening to red, and the 
marginal calli of the mid-lobe are similar. The apex of 
the mid-lobe is either yellow or very dark orange. There 
are no transverse red bars on the labellum, but the column 
invariably has from three to five across the upper por- 
tion on either side, not in front. 
The colouring of all parts of the labellum is retained 
quite remarkably in dried specimens. 
The accompanying figure represents a plant approxi- 
mately natural size, with side views of the labellum and 
column enlarged. 
A CLEVER PLANT. 
A good example of the way in which plants are able 
to look after their own welfare occurred at Toowong 
recently. During a dry time a self-sown pumpkin plant 
sprang up about five yards from the house. It sent out 
one runner, and one only, which travelled in a direct line 
up hill, the grade being about one in seven, to a open 
drain trap alongside the house. When it reached the 
drain it produced a bunch of root-like shoots which passed 
through the grating towards the water about one foot 
below, thus obtaining access to moisture which was not 
available in any other direction. At this stage the plant 
was accidentally destroyed. 
E. Kav Robinson, the English naturalist, has record- 
ed a somewhat similar instance. lie said: “1 once saw 
a jessamine plant which had scrambled over an outhouse 
and sent down a vigorous shoot, five feet in length, 
straight towards a drain in the corner below. When it 
was within three inches of the drain, the shoot turned 
abruptly and went straight up again for about four feet 
and over the fence. At the point where it turned, a 
cluster of fat little whitish rootlets grew out, and the fact 
that from that point the ascending part of the shoot was 
stronger and thicker than that which came down, showed 
that these rootlets were getting nourishment from the 
damp air of the drain. But there seemed almost human 
method in the plant ’s action in coming down all that way 
to fetch it, and going up again as soon as it had got what 
it wanted. 
C.W.H. 
