Fecundation in Orchidee and Asclepiadea. 689 
part, before the pollen masses are attached to it, * stigma vir- 
gineum," he may be considered as belonging to the same class. 
Koelreuter, the next writer in point of time, and whose essay 
was published before Linnzus's query appeared, states, in 1775*, 
that the pollen masses, which he denominates naked anthere, 
impart their fecundating matter to the surface of the cells of 
the true anthera, regarded by him consequently as stigma, and 
that through this surface it is absorbed and conveyed to the 
ovarium. | 
In 1787, Dr. Jonathan Stokest conjectures that in Orchidee, 
as well as in Asclepiadez, the male influence, or principle of 
arrangement, as it is termed by John Hunter, may be conveyed 
to the embryo without the intervention of air: a repetition cer- 
tainly of Linneus's conjecture, with which however, as it was 
not published till 1791, he could not have been acquainted. 
In 1791, Batsch* states that in Orchis and Ophrys,—and his 
observation may be extended at least to all Satyrinze or Ophry- 
dez,—the only way in which the mass of pollen can act on the 
ovarium, is by the retrogradation of the impregnating power 
through the pedunculus or caudicula of the pollen mass to the 
gland beneath it, which he is disposed to refer rather to the 
stigma than to the anthera. 
The late Professor Richard, in 18028, expressly says that 
fecundation is operated in Orchidez and Asclepiadex without 
a change of place in the stamina; his opinion therefore must be 
considered identical with that of Batsch, and extended to the 
whole order. 
It might perhaps be inferred from the description which I 
gave of Orchidez in a work published in 1810|, that my opi- 
* Act. Phys. Palat. iii. p. 55. + With. Bot. Arrang. 9nd ed. ii. p. 964. 
i Botanische Bemerk. i. p. 3. S Dict. de Botan. par Bulliard ed. 2. p. 56. 
| Prodr. Flor. Nov. Holl. i, p. 310. 
4T2 nion 
