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SEXUAL FORMS OF CATASETUM. 



William Hooker figured Catasetum N'aso 



211 



of giving the name furnished by Lindley, with a feeling that it 

 might be a sport of the original C tridentatum* . 



It may be observed here that the idea of three supposed genera 

 on the same plant did not actually originate with Darwin; for 

 Lindley has a similar statement with respect to another species, 

 namely C cristatum. Speaking of an abnormal specimen of 

 that plant, he refers to it as combining in its own proper person 

 no fewer than three supposed genera, My ant h us, Monachanthus, 

 and Catasetum f. The statement, however, is singularly unfor- 

 tunate and misleading ; for on referring to the accompanying plate 

 only two kinds of flowers are represented, namely, nine females 

 on the upper part of the raceme, and seven males underneath. 



It is to this specimen that Lindley alludes when he speaks of 

 Catasetum cristatum sporting into C tridentaturn, though this 

 would appear to have been an after-thought ; for at the time he 

 only speaks of it as changing into a Monachanthus, allied to 

 M. viridis. 



The singular phenomenon just described by Lindley was not 

 now observed by him for the first time. As long previously as 

 1826, when he figured this very species, he observes : — " The un- 

 importance of the peculiarity which exists in the labellum is 

 manifested in a singular manner by a curious monster of this 

 plant, which we have observed in an individual in the Horti- 



cultural Society's Garden. Among flowers of the ordinary kind 

 two or three others were observed in which the labellum was 

 precisely of the same nature as that of Catasetum tridentaturn; that 

 is to say, destitute of the crested appendage, and perfectly 

 galeate and naked J." It is unfortunate that these were not 



represented on the plate. 



This is interesting as being the first recorded evidence of the 

 production of two kinds of flowers by the genus; and had Lindley 



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* Hooker, Bot. Mag. t. 4702. 



t " In November 1836 His Grace the Duke of Devonshire was so kind as to 

 put into my hands the extraordinary flower represented in the accompanying 

 plate, which may be regarded as one of the greatest curiosities that our gardens 



ever produced It is that of a plant of Myanthus cristatus changing into a 



Monachanthus related to Monachanthus viridis, and combining in its own proper 

 person no fewer than three supposed genera, Myanthus, Monachanthus, and 

 Catasetum. 99 — Lindley, Bot. Reg. t. 1947 A (text numbered " 1951**). 



% Lindley, Bot. Reg. t. 96(5. 





















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