210 DR. M. T. MASTERS ON OPHRYS ARANIFERA. 
flower tetramerous, with the exception of the stamens, only one 
of which was perfect as in the ordinary flower. 
The only figure of a double Orchis, that I am acquainted with, 
is that given by Jacob in his Catalogue of the Plants of Faver- 
sham, published in 1777, which figure represents, apparently, a 
perfectly regular double flower of Orchis Morio; but how the 
doubling is produced there is no evidence to show. It will be re- 
marked that none of these instances, except, possibly, Dr. Jacob’s 
flower, presented so iarge a number of organs and so close an ap- 
proximation to the theoretical construction of the flower, as the 
one which I now bring under the notice of the Society as the most 
perfect form of irregular peloria yet observed among Orchids. 
Since the above remarks were laid before the Society, I have 
been made acquainted with two other instances of malformed 
Orchis flowers which are too interesting to be passed over. The 
first (for a knowledge of which I am indebted to the kindness of 
Professor Asa Gray and Mr. Darwin) occurred in some specimens 
of Pogonia ophioglossoides collected by Dr. J. H. Paine in a bog 
near Utica, New York. It will be seen from the following de- 
scription that these flowers presented an almost precisely similar 
condition to those of the Ophrys aranifera before mentioned. 
“The peculiarities of these flowers," writes Professor Gray, “ are 
that they have three labella, and that the column is resolved into 
small petaloid organs. The blossom is normal as to the proper 
perianth, except that the labellum is unusually papillose, bearded 
almost to the base. The points of interest are, first, that the two 
accessory labella are just in the position of the two suppressed 
stamens of the outer series, viz. of A? and A’, as represented in 
the diagram*; and there is a small petaloid body on the other 
side of the flower, answering to the other stamen, A'. Secondly, 
in one of the blossoms, and less distinctly in another, two lateral 
stamens of the inner series, oi and a’, are represented each by a 
slender naked filament. There are remaining petaloid bodies 
enough to answer for the third stamen of the inner series and 
for the stigmas, but their order is not well to be made out in 
the dried specimens.” 
The other instance to which I have alluded is one published by 
Dr. Moore of Glasnevin in Seemann’s Journal of Botany (1864). 
In this case the flowers of Orchis pyramidalis are described as 
double, the sepals and petals being multiplied, and the stamens 
* Darwin, Fertiliz. of Orchids, p. 292. 
ES — HABEN. Quieres 
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