744 Mi\ Brown on the Organs and Mode of 



Supplementary Note. 



Since the Paper on Fecundation in Orchideae and Asclepiadeae 

 was read before the Society, and a Pamphlet containing ail its 

 more important statements was distributed in the beginning of 

 November 1831*, two essays have appeared on the same sub- 

 ject. The first on both families by M. Adolphe Brongniart, in 

 the numbers of the Annales des Sciences Naturelles for October 

 and November 1831, but which were not published until Ja- 

 nuary and February 1832: the second, by Dr. Ehrenberg, on 

 Asclepiadeae alone, in the Transactions of the Royal Academy of 

 Sciences of Berlin, before which it was read in November 1831. 



M. Brongniart's statements respecting Orchide;e to a great 

 extent agree with those of my essa^^ They differ, however, in 

 the following important points : 



1st, He does not seem to be aware of the operation of insects 

 in the fecundation of this family. 



2ndly, He considers the mucous cords in the cavity of the 

 ovarium (first seen by M. Du Petit Thouars, with whose obser- 

 vations he seems to be entirely unacquainted,) as a continuation 

 of the tissue of the stigma and style, and as existing before the 

 application of the pollen to the female organ. 



And 3rdly, He supposes that the male influence reaches the 

 ovula in Orchideae before the inversion of the nucleus ; an opi- 

 nion founded, as it seems, on his observations on Epipactis, in 

 which, as well as in some other genera of the order, this is the 

 state of the ovulum in the expanded flower. 



In AscLEPiADE^ M. Brongniart's observations, made chiefly 

 in Asclepias amoena and Gomphocarpus fruticosa, accord with my 

 statements as far as relates to the application of the more convex 



» I may also refer to an excellent abstract of the Paper which appeared on the 

 1st of December 1831 in the Philos. Mag. and Annals of Philosophy. 



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