On the method of fertilization in Bulbophyllum 
macranthum, and allied Orchids. 
BY 
H. N. RIDLEY, M.A., F.L.S. 
Superintendent of the Botanic Garden of Singapore . 
With Plate XXII. A. 
A LL who have examined the flowers of any species of 
Cirrhopetalum , or Bulbophyllum , cannot fail to have 
remarked the singular arrangement of the lip, which is usually 
small and inconspicuous, especially when compared with the 
lateral sepals, and is so loosely articulated with the prolonged 
foot of the column as to be exceedingly mobile, frequently 
being kept in a constant state of vibration by every current 
of air. How this state of affairs conduced to insect fertiliza- 
tion was altogether obscure. Darwin, in the Fertilization of 
Orchids, p. 138, states, after examining several species of 
Bulbophyllum , e. g. B. cupreum^B. cocoinum , and B. Rhizophorae , 
that he was quite unable to conjecture the use of this extreme 
mobility of lip, unless it were to attract the attention of insects ; 
adding that possibly in the case of B. barbigerum and a few 
other species in which the lip is decorated with tufts of very 
delicate clubbed hairs, this may play some part in calling the 
attention of the fertilizer. But I shall hope to show an en- 
tirely different reason for this arrangement, which, especially 
in the case of B. macranthum , is I think one of the most 
beautiful and marvellous among all those in the Order. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. IV, No, XV, August 1890.] 
