CONFOBMATIOK OF THE QE^FS CTPBIPEDIUII. 403 



an Epideiidrum one form o£ which is constantly triandrous (Bot. 

 Zeit. 1872, no. 10, p. 152). By some observers it is considered 

 that traces of the undeveloj^ed stamens of the outer, and perhaps 

 also of the inner, row are to be seen in the shape of lateral out- 

 growths from the column, or, as in Cypripedium^ in the form -of 

 lateral lobes of the staminode ; but this opinion, as also the view 

 that one or more stamens are incorporated with the lip, I believe, 

 for reasons hereafter given, to be erroneous *. 



In Zijgostates cornuta (according to Pfitzer, I. c. p. 88), in ad- 

 dition to the ordinary median stamen Ai, there are present A2, 

 A3, and a.i, in the form of sterile filaments. Lindley, however 

 (* Vegetable Kingdom,' ed. 3 (1853), p. 183^), referred the 

 staminodes of tliis plant entirely to the inner series. In The- 

 lychiton, Endlicher, Iconog. t. 29, there is a central stigma 

 surrounded by a lobed cup bearing on one of its lobes an 

 anther, Criigerf describes and figures an Isocliilus in which 

 the flower is normally triandrous, but which often bears five 

 anthers with a filament proceeding from the front of the column 

 just beneath the stigmatic cavity. Van 

 Tieghem J, relying exclusively on the distri- Bract, 



bution of the vascular bundles, gives an ac- Si 



count of the arrangement of the parts, in some P^ P2 



measure at variance witb the generally received Ax 



opinions, but he concludes thus : — " Tandrocee a^ a2 



des Orchideea est done constituee idealement Gi 



par six etamines superposees, en deux verticilles G2 G3 

 ternaires aux divisions du perianthe." »3 



The ternary nature of the gynsecium is gene- A^ A^ 



rally admitted, though it is marked by abortion Vz 



and concrescence. In a flower of Pleione hir- S2 Ss 



mannica recently examined all three stigmas Axis. 



Were present. The distribution of the nerves Diagrammatic 



ia the column showed that the large wings of iH^s^^^tiou of the 



Ti 1 • T arrangements of 



the column, whicb might readily be mistaken the parts of an 

 for lateral stamens A2, A3, were really subdivi- 0^*^^^*^ A^^^^- 



sions of Ai. 

 The appended scheme, showing the relative position of the 



* See Eobert Brown, "Observations on Apostasia," in Wallich, Plantae Asiat. 

 Rarior. i. p. 74, and Miscellaneous Botanical Works, ed. Bennett (18GG), i. 499. 

 + Journ. Linn. Soc, Bot. viii. p. 135. 

 1 'Anatomic Comparee de la Eleur/ p. 142. 



2l2 



