Willi the stigma. Tliis opinion is now, we bfelieve, con- 

 signed to the catalogue of vu^ar . errors. jA nearer view 

 and a more philosophical research have demonstrated the 

 probability of a clandestihe fertillzatioH, previous to the 

 opening of the flower and removal of the poUen-masses ; at 

 a period when these bodies are endued with a very different 

 nature and substance from those they are found with at the 

 migratory stage, A theory, which, as the result of more 

 accurate investigation and sounder reasoning, ma:y safely 

 replace that which has been found groundless, at least until 

 itself shall have been refuted in turn, or modified by future 

 observation. The ori^nal notion, we suspect, had no bet- 

 ter foundation than the fact of the ineit and exhausted 

 residua of the pollen (after projection by an elastic dehis- 

 cence of the anther) having been frequently observed to 

 cling in masses of a determinate form to the neighbouring 

 stigma, where they are retained (probably for the use of 

 bees or of some other insects) by a viscid moisture secreted 

 at this period froni the surface of that organ. 



The waxen or homy state in which the pollen-masses 

 are found in a great proportion of this family, is never that 

 of their pristine consistence, but a consistence induced after 

 parting with their fertilizing principle, and indicatory of 

 exhaustion. For this reason, when these concrements en- 

 ter into the definitions of the secretions of Orchidece by Mr. 

 Brown, we find them designated " demUm cereacew*' (finally 

 waxen). And in this state only, from their permanence, 

 greater evidence, and easier accessibility, could they have 

 been adopted for characteristic marks. Previous to that 

 period, besides the continual change both in form and con- 

 sistence which is more or less in progress, the precise but 

 fugitive moment at which these bodies might be deemed 

 perfect, that is, mature and still pregnant with the ferti- 

 lizing principle, could not have been easily seized for prac- 

 tical discrimination, even if such point of their existence 

 was held a truer and safer ground of distinction. 



It is by the singular habit of the pollen that Orchidece 

 are distinguished among Monocotyledons, as the Asclepiadeae 

 are by one nearly similar among Dicotyledons. 



In the Asclepiadeons family the anthers are five, all with 

 a pollen concreting into a determinate number of masses, 

 which, on, issuing from the mould or case of the anther, at- 



