Fecundation in OrchidecB and Asclepiadea. 687 



account of Ophrys apifera, correctly delineates and describes the 

 pollen masses, called by him antherse, the glands at their base in- 

 closed in distinct cuculli or bursiculae, and the stigma, with the 

 surface of which he represents the masses as coming in contact. 



In his second volume, the two lateral adnate lobes of the 

 stigma, and the auriculae of the column of Orchis mascula, are 

 distinctly shown ; and these auriculae, now generally denomi- 

 nated rudimentary stamina, are also delineated in some other 

 species of Orchis afterwards figured in the same work. 



In 1793, Christian Konrad Sprengel* asserts that the pollen 

 masses are applied directly to the secreting or viscid surface on 

 the front of the column, in other words to the stigma, and that 

 insects are generally the agents in this operation. 



In 1799j J- K. Wachtert supports the same opinion, as far as 

 regards the necessity of direct contact of the pollen masses with 

 the female organ ; and this observer was the first who succeeded 

 in artificially impregnating an Orchideous plant, by applying 

 the pollen to the stigma of Habenaria bifolia. 



In 1799 also, or beginning of 1800, Schkuhr.^ takes the same 

 view of the subject, and states that the pollen masses, which 

 resist the action of common moisture, are readily dissolved by 

 the viscid fluid of the stigma. 



In 1800 Swartz§, in adopting the same opinion, notices 

 various ways in which the application of the pollen may be 

 effected in the different tribes of this family, repeats the state- 

 ment of Schkuhr on the solvent power of the stigma, and in 

 Bletia Tankervillia describes ducts which convey the absorbed 

 fluid from that organ to the ovarium. 



In 1804, Salisbury II asserts that he had succeeded in im- 



* Entd. Geheim. p. 401. f Rdmer Archiv. ii. p. 209. 



X Handbuch iii. p. 192. § Jet. Holm. 1800 p. 134. 



II Linn. Soc. Transact, vii. p. 29. 



VOL. XVI. 4 T pregnating 



