





• 



212 



MB. R. A. BOLFE ON THE 





grasped its full significance, it is certain that he would not 

 afterwards have described Monachanthus and Myanthus at all. 

 As it was, however, some years afterwards he tells us he could 

 not believe his own words, and concluded some mistake had been 

 made *. Even when finally abandoning the two supposed genera, 

 he had not the slightest idea of the significance of the facts ob- 

 served f. Nor does he ever appear to have arrived at a solution 

 of the difficulty, as the following will show :— " There is a circum- 

 stance observed by Mr. Schomburgk . . . which is very curious, 

 and deserves to be recorded. In a letter ... he says . . . 'Are 

















1 





you aware that Catasetum and Myanthus are not seed-bearing, 

 but that Monachanthus bears seed abundantly ? ' I do not know 

 what conclusion to draw from this statement ; but it would be a 

 curious fact if, as Mr. Schomburgk's observation would seem to 

 imply, the species of Catasetum and Myanthus should prove to be 

 sterile states of Monachanthus " J. 



It i3 not a little remarkable that Schomburgk, coming so near, 

 as he did, to guessing the truth, should not have seen that he 

 had two females confused under the name Monachanthus viridis ; 

 but the idea of the plant having two quite different kinds of 

 males does not appear to have aroused his suspicions. The 

 following note will show what his ideas on the subject were : 

 " Here we have traces of sexual difference in Orchidaceous 











■ 



flowers. 1 have seen hundreds of Catasetum tridentatum on 

 savannahs adjacent to the lake Capoeya (Arabisce coast of 

 Essequebo), without ever finding one specimen with seeds, while 

 those bulbs which, according to Dr. Lindley's description, 

 belonged to Monachanthus viridis, astonished me by their gigantic 

 seed-vessels " §. 









* " This, I repeat, appeared to me so extraordinary a statement, especially as 

 after seven years it had never been corroborated by any other case of the same 

 kind, that I concluded I must have made some mistake." — Lindley, Bot. Beg. 

 t. 1947 A. 



t "The necessary consequence of this is that the supposed genera Myanthus 

 and Monachanthus must be restored to Catasetum ; and I have no doubt now, 

 although no proof has been seen of it, that Mormodes must share the same fate. 

 But which of the species have their masks on, and which show their real faces, 

 I certainly will not at present presume to guess." — Lindley, Bot. Beg. 

 t. 1947 A. 



% Lindley, Bot Reg. xxiv. t. 31. 



§ Schomb. in Trans. Linn. Soc. xvii. p. 552. 























, 































I 













- 





■ 



■ 





■ 













. 





. 





















































' 



. 



