214 MR. R. A. ROLFE ON THE APOSTASIER. 
things, that it differed from Cypripedium in having a triloeular 
ovary and three perfect stamens, in addition to a barren one or 
staminode; and that, while in characters it more nearly approached 
the small family Apostasiee, still it might possibly prove to be a 
monstrous state of the plant then known as Cypripedium caudatum, 
Lindl., now Selenipedium caudatum, Reichb. f. 
In 1854 Prof. Reichenbach described Selenipedium *, basing it 
on the Tropical-American species then called Cypripedium, but 
differing in having a trilocular ovary (a point previously apparently 
unsuspected). He remarks of it,“ Omnia Cypripedii, sed ovarium 
Apostasiee Uropediique," and briefly adds, “ Apostasie@ sunt 
Orchidee.” 
A little later the same author figured and described Uropedium 
Lindenii, Lindl. +, contending that as the three stamens of the 
inner whorl were all perfect, Uropedium should be regarded as a 
good genus and not a monstrous condition of something else. 
Notwithstanding this, it is now certain that the plant is simply a 
pelorioid state of Selenipedium caudatum, in which this peculiar 
character has become fixed or permanent. Exeepting in the 
altered parts, no difference whatever can be detected between the 
two,—colour, texture, and similar characters are as absolutely 
identical as if the two kinds of flower were produced by the same 
plant; and Dr. Masters has recorded an instance where a plant 
_ of the normal character produced a flower with all the stamens 
of the inner whorl perfect, and the lip quite intermediate between 
the normal condition of that organ and an ordinary petal (or the 
lip of Uropedium)t. 
Dr. Pfitzer also retains Uropedium § (spelling it * Uropedilum "), 
adding, however, a *?" ; he also defines his group Cypripediline 
as sometimes having all the stamens of the inner whorl perfect, a 
character obviously drawn from Uropedium. 
In 1867-8 Baron Ferdinand von Müller described Niemeyera || 
as a new genus of Hypoxidacee, but it has proved to be simply an 
Australian species of Apostasia. 
In 1881 Bentham published his * Notes on Orchidee," in 
which he united Apostasiee with Oypripediee €| under the latter 
* Seemann's Bonplandia, ii. p. 116. t Xen. Orch. i. p. 32, t. 15. 
t Gard. Chron. n. s. xxvi. p. 268, fig. 54; also Journ. Linn. Soc. xxii. p. 419, 
t. 20. 
$ Nat. Anordn. Orch. (1887) p. 95. 
| Fragm. Phyt. Austral. vi. p. 96. € Journ. Linn. Soc. xviii. p. 358. 
