setum tridentatum ; that is to say, destitute of the crested 
appendage, and perfectly galeate and naked.” 
This, I repeat, appeared to me so extraordinary a 
statement, especially as after seven years it had never been 
corroborated by any other case of the same kind, that I 
concluded I must have made some mistake, and I accord- 
ingly formed the genùs Myanthus out of a species nearly 
allied to the very Catasetum cristatum, which, in 1826, I 
had seen sporting back to C. tridentatum. 
Not content with this, I added the genus Monachanthus, 
distinguishing it from Catasetum by the want of cirrhi on 
its column, and by its perianth being turned back; and 
when the original species, M. viridis, was sent me from 
Wentworth, previously to publication in this work, fol. 1752, 
I felt no doubt of its being an entirely distinct plant. Even 
when Lord Fitzwilliam assured me that it was beyond all 
doubt an accidental sport of Catasetum tridentatum, 1 still 
adhered to my idea that an imported plant of Monachanthus 
viridis had been accidentally taken for the latter common 
species. Nor do I think that as a Botanist I was to be blamed 
for these errors : the genera being founded upon characters . 
which were apparently important, and which most assuredly 
no one could, 2 priori, have suspected could pass into each 
other in the manner that has now been seen. If, however, 
it should be thought that I ought to have been aware of such 
metamorphoses, 1 at least have lost no time in acknowledging 
the mistakes, and putting others on their guard against 
them for the future. 
With regard to the particular case now before us, Mr. - 
Paxton has furnished me with the following note :— 
* The monster sent by his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, 
was produced on a plant of Myanthus cristatus, which also 
produced a perfect spike of Myanthus cristatus at the same 
time; the same plant has flowered twice before, but did not 
sport: a high state of cultivation appears to favour the 
production of monsters of this kind. "here are more than 
twenty plants of Myanthus barbatus at Chatsworth, which 
are almost all different in colour, but none of them have yet 
