334 Ridley . — On the method of fertilization in 
dorsal sepal and petals ciliate along the edges and ending 
in long points, the lateral sepals form a funnel-shaped body- 
ending below in two very long setae ; all are dark red, with 
a little yellow at base. The lip is violet, lighter in the centre, 
and very conspicuous against the dark red petals and sepals. 
It seems to be glutinous and shiny. After the flowers were 
opened I found a very small black Dipteron, resembling 
a minute Musca, upon the lip. It was seated on the apex 
of the lip with its head towards the column, and appeared 
to be licking the lip. Presently it moved towards the lip- 
base, and as it did so the lip suddenly went over, throwing 
the fly into the column, where it stuck, the lip remaining 
in the same position. I attempted to secure the fly, but 
it released itself, and escaped without removing the pollen, 
and the lip sprang back to its old position. Probably I had 
touched the lip and so set the insect free, and if it had been 
left to extricate itself, it would have received the pollen upon 
its head in its struggles to escape. Shortly before this, while 
watching another species of Cirrhopetalnm , also undescribed, 
I saw a similar fly, this time upon the broad .flattened lateral 
sepals, which it was carefully examining. In the latter 
species which is an ally of C. Cumingii , and much resembles 
C. pulchrum , N.E. Brown (figured in the Illustration Horticole), 
but is smaller, the lip is dark- coloured, while the rest of the 
flower is comparatively light- coloured. The attractive part 
here is certainly the sepals. 
Now to compare the principles of fertilization of a typical 
Bulbophyllum , such as B. adenopetalum or Medusae , with that 
of a Cirrhopetalnm. In the first case the flower is partially 
closed, and the lateral sepals only serve to narrow the apprasch 
to the column. In the second case they frequently perform 
the function usually allotted to the lip, i. e. of an attractive 
alighting place. They are of different colour and form to the 
dorsal sepal, and much larger. The petals seem to play the 
same part in both, they are more inconspicuous, smaller, stiff, 
often in the latter case armed with cilia ; in B. Epicrianthes 
they are reduced to a tuft of cilia, and serve to prevent the 
