132 Miscellaneous. 



and feeble depression, five lines by three lines, indicates that this 

 species had a back-toe in the corresponding position with that in the 

 Apteryx, but more rudimental. 



A very remarkable femur and tarso-metatarsal bone, also from 

 the Middle Island, were exhibited, belonging to an additional tri- 

 dactyle species, to which the name of Dinornis crassus was given. 

 Of this species the author remarks : " With a stature nearly equal to 

 that of the Ostrich, the femur and tarso-metatarsus present double 

 the thickness in proportion to their length. It must have been the 

 strongest and most robust of birds, and the best representative of 

 the pachydermal type in the feathered class." 



The third new species is comparatively a small one, being inter- 

 mediate in size between the Dinornis didiformis and the Din. otidi- 

 formis ; it was founded on remains exclusively from the North Island, 

 and was called by the author Dinornis curtus. 



The paper (which was illustrated by numerous figures) concluded 

 by some general comparisons and remarks on the geographical 

 distribution of the different species of Dinornis. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Note on the Organogeny of Irregular Corollas. By M. Baeneoud. 



In the Orchidacece, if a flower of Orchis galeata be examined in 

 the very earliest condition, it will be found to consist of a simple 

 cupula of very transparent tissue, on the border of which three 

 round equal teeth soon become visible : these constitute the exterior 

 verticil, which is formed exactly in the same manner as a true mo- 

 nophyllous calyx. In a short time a second cupula is seen to origi- 

 nate in the interior of the first, and its substance quickly becomes 

 blended with that of the latter, except that its border exhibits three 

 small prominences, perfectly equal and alternating with the teeth of 

 the exterior verticil. Thus the author considers that organogeny 

 clearly demonstrates in the Orchidacece, as in most other monocoty- 

 ledonous families, analogues of the calyx and corolla of dicotyledons. 

 The three nascent segments of the interior verticil of Orchis galeata 

 are quite similar in the early condition, and it is not until a subse- 

 quent period that one becomes evidently broader and more fully de- 

 veloped than the two others ; this it is which becomes the labellum. 

 Orchis Morio, Ophrys aranifera, and two exotic genera, a Maxillaria 

 and an Oncidium, presented exactly identical conditions. 



In the Labiata, the corolla of Lamium garganicum when it first be- 

 comes visible is represented by a little cupula scarcely hollowed out 

 at all, bordered by five teeth which are very short and at this time 

 alone, quite equal, for two of them speedily cohere and become 

 blended together to form a large, round and very convex lamella, 

 which subsequently becomes the helmet of the Lamium. Of the 

 three remaining teeth, the central one also becomes much larger 

 than the others, which are always small and atrophied. The evo- 

 lution of the didynamous stamens exposes the singular fact, that the 



