







214 



MR. B. A. ROLFE ON THE 





column and f unctionless. This being the case, Darwin's other 



My 



naturally fall to the ground. 



Hitherto the instances of so-called " sporting" in Catasetum 

 have not presented any insuperable difficulty on careful investi- 

 gation, but have proved to be the occasional abnormal combination 

 of both sexes in the same individual ; whereas the species are 

 normally dioecious,— so much so that in the majority of them the 

 second sex is at present unknown. But now we come to another 

 recorded instance of the production of three kinds of flowers on 

 the same individual, of which I at present fail to discover a satis- 

 factory explanation. Speaking of a supposed new species, C. 

 heteranthum, — which, by the way, has proved identical with C. 

 Gnomus, Linden & Reichb. f., — Eodrigues remarks that he has 

 observed three kinds of flowers borne on the same individual, 

 corresponding to the three " su 



Monach 



Each 



of the 



ra " Catasetum, Myanihus, 

 three is pretty fully de- 

 scribed, but, strange to say, there is not a word about sexual dif- 

 ferences, neither in this case nor in that of other species of which 

 two kinds of flowers were observed. In fact, the author does not 



* "As we thus see that both the male and female organs are apparently perfect, 

 Myanthus bar bat us may be considered as the hermaphrodite form of the same 

 species, of which the Catasetum is the male and Monachanthus the female. 



iphrodite Mya 



in its whole structure much more closely the male forms of two distinct species 

 (namely, C. saccatum and, more especially, C. callosum) than either its own male 



'arwin 







M In Catasetum we have three sexual forms, generally borne on separate plants, 

 but sometimes mingled together ; and these three forms are wonderfully dif- 

 ferent from each other — much more different than, for instance, a peacock is 

 from a. peahen." — Darwin, I. c. p. 157. 



In eodem individuo profert ha?c species, in eodem caule seu caulibusalhs 



t 



£ IT * 



generis tres BubdiYisionea "—Eodrigues, Gen. et Sp. Orch. Nov. i. (1877), 



p. 127. 



" Sur une Aynrana (Salix Humboldt i an a, Mart.) dans X Amazonas, j'ai rencontre 

 tin exemplaire presentant un fait d'heteranthie tres -curie ux ; du ln&iue pseudo- 

 bulbe sortaient trois tiges floralcs dont chacune portait separement des fleurs 

 des sous-genres Catasetum, Myanthus, et Monachanthus. Les fleurs, outre la 

 forme, avaient le coloris tres-different. Plus tard, j'ai rencontre dansV igapo du 

 Yanauary, un autre individu portant sur la mdiiie tige le Catasete et le Myan- 

 thusr—Bodr. I. c. p. 128. 



11 «Pai vu dans .... plusieurs endroits de YAmazonas, le meme individu, 

 6mettre non seuleument le Myanthus et le Catasetum en racemes differents, 

 mais aussi le meme raceme offrir le Monachanthus avec les deux autres formes. 



Eodr. I. c. d. 206. 















































* 







■ 





























, 





