l'ecundation in Orchidee and Asclepiadec. 697 
In my mind it arose from contrasting the structure of Cypri- 
pedium with those genera of New Holland Orchidez— Diuris, 
Prasophyllum, and others—in which the lateral processes or 
appendages of the column are so remarkably developed; and 
l afterwards, in searching for additional confirmations of the 
hypothesis, believed I had found such in the more minute late- 
ral auriculz of the column present in most Ophrydez. 
These auricule however, though they might serve to confirm, 
would hardly have suggested the hypothesis, at the period espe- 
cially of which I speak. "They had indeed until then been 
altogether overlooked, except by Malpighi*, by Curtis in his 
Flora Londinensis, perhaps in Walcott's Flora Britannica, and 
by Mr. Bauer, whom they were not likely to escape. 
In my recent observations on Apostasia, referred to, I 
noticed a singular monstrosity of Habenaria bifolia, which, if 
such deviations from ordinary structure are always to be trusted, 
would throw great doubt on the hypothesis being applicable to 
these auriculae of Ophrydez. For in this case, in which three 
antherze are formed, auricule not only exist on the middle or 
ordinary stamen, but one is also found on the upper side of 
each of the lateral antherz, which are here opposite to two 
divisions of the outer series of the perianthium. I have lately 
met with another instance of a similar monstrosity equally 
unfavourable ; and I may add that this doubt is still further 
strengthened by my not being able to find vascular cords con- 
nected with these auriculz in the only plants of Ophrydes in 
which I have carefully examined, with this object, the structure 
of the column, namely, Orchis Morio, mascula, and latifolia. 
I do not indeed regard the absence of vessels as a complete 
proof of these auriculz not being rudimentary stamina. But I 
may remark, that in the other tribes of Orchidez, in many of 
* Op. Om. tab. 25. fig. 142. 
4u2 whose 
