iSo 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



This specimen was figured in the Botanical Register 

 (vol. xxiii.) and proved beyond all doubt the cor- 

 rectness of what had been previously written con- 

 cerning the variability of the flowers. Dr. Lindleyin 

 commenting upon the plant mentions how he first 

 assigned these forms to three genera, distinguishing 

 Myanthus from Catasetum by the deeply fringed or 

 crested labellum, and Monachanthus from both the 

 others, by the absence of cirrhi or feelers from the 

 column, and he further remarks in extenuation of this 

 decision, "nor do I think that as a botanist I could 

 be blamed for these errors, the genera being founded, 

 upon characters which no one could, a priori, have 



differed from the species then known, C. Loddigesii, 

 in having a column dilated and hooded at the apex 

 and in being quite devoid of scent. This he con- 

 sidered a distinct species, and accordingly named it 

 C. ciicullata, but very shortly afterwards he observed 

 in the garden of the Royal Horticultural Society a 

 plant bearing two racemes, " on one were the fragrant 

 flowers of C. Loddigesii and on the other the scentless 

 flowers of C. cucullata" 



Well indeed might the same author observe in the 

 "Vegetable Kingdom," "Such cases shake to the 

 foundation our ideas of the stability of genera and 

 species and prepare the mind for more startling 



Fig. 95. — Heteromorphic Flover 

 of Cycnoches IVarsceiviczii. 



Fig. 98. — Flower of Cycnoches Warscewiczii. 



suspected could pass into each other in the manner 

 that has now been seen." Many other similar 

 specimens have since been noted, and the two pseudo- 

 genera Monachanthus and Myanthus are now merged 

 in Catasetum. 



The other heteromorphic genus, Cycnoches, is 

 similar in habit to Catasetum, its most marked 

 characteristic being the long slender and gracefully 

 arched column which suggested the name, Cycnoches 

 signifying " swan-neck." Only two forms of flowers 

 have been observed to occur on single plants of this 

 genus, and these are usually borne upon two distinct 

 racemes produced from opposite sides of the stem. 

 In 1836 Dr. Lindley received from a gentleman in 

 Birmingham, a specimen of a Cycnoches which 



discoveries than could have been otherwise antici- 

 pated." 



Since that time about six or seven so-called species 

 have been introduced from tropical America, in many 

 of which a similar tendency to produce distinct forms 

 of flowers on the same plant has been noticed, and it 

 is thus extremely difficult to define the specific 

 characters. Cycnoches Warscevnczii is one of the 

 most recent introductions, and a specimen exhibited 

 at one of the Royal Horticultural Society's meetings 

 last year showed the dimorphic character extremely 

 well. On one side of the plant was a long drooping 

 raceme of numerous small, dull yellow flowers, with 

 reflexed sepals and petals, a peculiar fringed labellum 

 supported on a stalk, and a slender arching column. 



