CONFOEMATION OF THE GEIS-US CTPKIPEDIUM, 407 



present. The mass of the stigmatic lobe is made up o£ large 

 tbick-walled polygonal cells, manj with nuclei and nucleoli ; 

 througli this mass of parenchyma the vascular cords pass, the 

 tracheas being nearest to the lower or anterior edge. The lower 

 or anterior part of the stigmatic lobe consists of several layers o£ 

 cells of a very different character from those constituting the bulk 

 of the ]obe. They are elongated or club-shaped, in several layers, 

 disposed more or less horizontally, thin-walled and nucleated, and 

 bounded on the lower surface by a layer of papular cells. 



This layer of stigmatic tissue, though to outward appearance 

 unbroken, is seen, on inspection of microscopic sections, to pass 

 mward and to sej^arate the lobe into two divisions, correspond- 

 ing to G2 and Gs. Perhaps in some species Gi may be cut off in 

 a similar way, but this has not been the case in any of the flowers 

 examined by me. The stigmatic lobe, therefore, so far from being 

 single, as it appears to be at first sight, is certainly two-fold and, 

 perhaps, in some species three-fold, the two or the three styles 

 at their uppermost ends being united in the median line like 

 the two lateral sepals. The column of Cypripedium^ therefore, 

 is made up of three stamens and of three styles. Of the three 

 stamens the upper median belongs to the outer row and is deve- 

 loped as the staminode ; the other two lateral ones are fertile and 

 belong to the inner row. Of the three ovaries and three styles all 



stigm 



tw 



lobe* 



Tebatologt of CrPEiPEDiuar. 



Adverting now to the teratological appearances presented by 

 this genus and its allies, I propose to confine attention to those 

 malformations which more directly elucidate the plan of Orchid- 

 structure, and to omit reference to those numerous cases of pure 



signi 



ficance from the present point of view. 



So re^^arded, these malformations may conveniently be grouped 

 tinder the heads of defect, of excess, or of perversion of the natural 



* The description above given of the course of the vascular bundles of the 

 column &c. agrees in the main with that given by Van Tieghem, * Anatomie 

 Compar^e de la Fleur,' p. 144, tab. xii. figs. 201^219, and with that propounded 

 bj Gerard, L c, p. 236. Van Tieghem, however, says nothing about the arrange- 

 ment of the cords in the stigmatic lobe, nor is it alluded to by any other author, 

 so far as I am aware. 



