V 



COXFORMATlOy OF TnE (JE^'US CTlMflPEDIUM. 41? 



present, .either sei^arate, when each occupies a truly lateral 

 position, or united from concrescence, when the conjoined pair 

 occupy a median, inferior, or anterior position. In these flowers 

 the side petals are absent, the petalline whorl being repre- 

 sented by a single median petal opposite to the lip, as shown in 

 Mr. Le Marcbant Moore's monandrous C^pripediu7n, and in 

 those figiircd in this communication, and as cowmonlj happens 

 when the flowers of Orchids are dimerous. Professor Charles 

 ' Morren* describes and figures a flower oi Cypripedium insigne 

 in which, by torsion of the axis, the inner sepal had become 

 lateral, and, by a furtlier twist, one of the lower sepals 

 made to occupy the position of one of the lateral petals. Of the 

 two side petals, one was completely absent, while the other, by 

 a continuance of the twisting process, was placed in a median 

 position oj)posite to the lip. All the stamens were absent except 

 one of the inner row^ apparently what we should now designate 

 as <?i. Morren cites this flower as an instance of what he terms 

 "ispiranthy." The flower may probably have been susceptible 

 of other and simj)ler interpretations than that offered by the 

 Belgian Professor ; but it is unnecessary to enter into the 

 question here, where the only object is to cite the flower as an 

 instance of displacement of parts and of a monandrous condition. 

 In a flower of (7. Lawrenceanum given me by Mr. 0*Brien 

 the flower liad a peculiar oblique lopsided appearance by reason 

 of the lateral petals being united with the upper sepal; and 

 while the sepal was, as it were, dragged downwards, the petal 

 W'as correspondingly raised; the consequence being that neither 

 part occupied its natural relative position, Q(f^ but one was about 

 midway between the two, /. e, 45"". The other lateral petal was 

 normal in form and in position. 



Peloeia. 



IV. Tendency towards Begularity of Form and Arrangement of 



Parts, or Peloria. 



Peloria in Cypripe&ium, as in other plants, is either: — a, Me^ 

 gular, when the tendency to regularity is brought about by an 

 increase in the number of regular portions, a tendency which 

 seems to be a reversion to a simpler and probably primordial 

 condition, as is the case perhaps in XJropedium ; or, /3, Irregular^ 

 when symmetry is restored by the development in an irregular 



Bull. Acad. Roy. Belgique, t. xviii. p. 19(>, tab.; Lohilia (1851). p. 56. 



LIliN. JOUBN. — BOIANT, VOL. XXll. 2 M 



