ON CERTAIN EPIGYNOUS MONOCOTYLEDONS. 16? 



to certain speculations. To me it only tells for the present that 

 nature here also displays the greatest variety, or that we are 

 still ignorant of the laws which she follows here. 



Orchideae. Epidendrum bicornutum, Hook. — The inflores- 

 cence of the Orchideae (PL V. fig. 7) is in general, as every one 

 knows, very simple, and offers no difficulties. The curvature 

 of the peduncle, so frequently observed, produces great varia- 

 tions in the external appearance of this lovely family, but it is of 

 very slight or of no value for generic characters, although this 

 particular is included in them by some. 



In the above-named plant, very common here on rocky sea- 

 shores, the bud first shows itself behind the bract as a roundish 

 slightly flattened nodule, which is soon converted into a little 

 cup with an undivided border, at the bottom of which the traces 

 of the rest of the parts of the flower are seen at that time as a 

 still undivided mass. Shortly afterwards, the outermost organs 

 of the flower become distinct by the border of the cup growing 

 considerably at the places corresponding to these, while no 

 development occurs at the points corresponding to the fissures 

 separating them. Then three little papillae make their appear- 

 ance in the middle of this flower, and directly afterwards the 

 fourth organ, the anther, which is so situated between the lateral 

 inner petals, that it forms a circle with them and the labellum. 

 All these organs then increase in breadth, and the anther soon 

 exhibits a furrow in front. The parts of the stigma appear 

 later, at first only just indicated by a little swelUng at the point 

 of attachment of the anther. But by degrees the column rises 

 out from the body of the flower, and the anther, which at first 

 is quite erect, bends down upon it after its cells are perfectly 

 developed. The labellum merits especial attention. Up to a 

 comparatively late epoch this has so much the form of the 

 anther, that the latter can only be distinguished from it by its 

 greater thickness and its position. At a rather later epoch 

 the anther is found still obtuse at its apex, while the labellum is 

 apiculated, and at a somewhat more advanced period the labellum 

 exhibits the processes, first the lateral notches on the border, and 

 in particular, still later, the two calli, so strongly marked in the 

 perfect flower, to which the plant owes its specific name^ 



Such is the course in the flower of an Epidendrum with the 



