338 MR. HENRY RIDLEY ON ORCHIDEZ AND 
it withers, while the full advantage of the incurving of the 
column in pressing the pollinia into the stigma is received by 
the flower. 
At the base of the scapes in Grammatophyllum, there are 
always five or six monstrous flowers, the lowest quite at the 
base, the upper ones much more distant from each other than 
are the normal ones above. These monstrous flowers are quite 
sterile. They consist of two pairs of perianth segments, 
distinctly, though shortly, separated from each other, and 
exactly alternate, and a rudimentary column. The perianth 
segments of each pair are exactly opposite each other. They 
are longer, and narrower in proportion to their length, than 
those of the normal flowers (being 3 inches long by 15 inches 
broad, as opposed to 2 inches by 1; inches), and they are also 
much duller in colouring. The column faces one of the lower 
pairs, 1.e., it alternates with the upper pair. It is very much 
thinner laterally than that of a normal flower ; and the broad 
front face is reduced to a sharp edge. The upper part is 
clubbed. There is no trace of an anther; but in one or two 
specimens I have seen a narrow linear process rising from 
the centre of the back of the colamn which is possibly @ 
rudimentary filament. The stigma is very small, and almost 
entirely closed over, a minute hole only being visible on the 
front face. A section of the ovary shows four lobes, corre 
sponding to the four perianth segments ; and each has a single 
fibro-vascular bundle passing through it, except the front one, 
which has several bundles, and is indeed broader than the 
other lobes. One of these bundles supplies the front segment, 
the other the column. 
The foot of the column is well marked in all the monstrous 
flowers, but it is thin. There is no nectary, and no trace of 
the base of the lip. 
Another monstrous flower consisted of two perianth segments 
only, very much smaller than those of the ordinary abnormal 
ones. These segments were opposite and distinctly separated, 
oblong obtuse. 
