17 
posited in large angular nodules. He describes them as 
being easily separated from the tissue in which they are 
imbedded, resembling pebbles of rock crystal, tough like 
horn, not to be torn, crackling between the teeth like frag- 
ments of caoutchouc, and seeming to be homogeneous. Iodine 
did not stain them blue, but claret-coloured, especially the 
alcholic solution. By the process of charring they were dis- 
covered to consist of extremely minute transparent cells, filled 
with a substance of the same refractive power as themselves, 
on which account they appear to be homogeneous. 
The late Professor Meyen, of Berlin, has criticised this 
account in his last report upon the progress of physiological 
Botany. After reading his remarks with all the attention we 
are able to give them, and re-examining the roots of both 
Salep and other Orchises, we can only say that we adhere to 
every particular contained in the paper in the Linnean Trans- 
actions. The nodules are not starch, but Bassorine ; there 
is no recorded case of identity between those nodules and 
other internal secretions, and the proof of their consisting of 
minute transparent cells is, we are still of opinion, not only a 
new but highly important fact. We never said it was in- 
explicable upon any known principle ; on the contrary, the 
reference to the existence of cytoblasts upon the sides of the 
minute cells sufficiently indicated the explanation we should 
have given of the structure had we thought it desirable to do 
so: but the paper was a mere record of an extremely curious 
fact, and not a dissertation or a physiological speculation. 
eee eee En ne 
42. LASLIA acuminata ; pseudo-bulbis ovatis compressis rugosis, foliis so- 
litariis emarginatis, scapo bifloro, sepalis linearibus petalisque lanceolatis 
undulatis acuminatis, labelli lobis lateralibus rotundatis intermedio lan- 
ceolato undulato acuminato. 
Found in Guatemala by Mr. Hartweg, and distributed 
by the Horticultural Society. It flowered at the same time 
in the garden at Chiswick and at Carclew, in the collection of 
Sir C. Lemon. It is a curious Orchidaceous plant, very near 
L. rubescens; from which it differs in the scape being two- 
flowered not racemose, in the sepals being acuminate, and 
the flowers at least twice as large. It is a pretty species, with 
pale blush flowers. What seems to be a variety, from Costa- 
March D—1841. c 
