168 



labellum almost free, for comparison with which I have traced the 

 development in another species where the labellum is adherent 

 to the column as far up as the anther. This is an Epidendrum with 

 almost equal sepals, the inner of which merely is a little broader, 

 and a labellum with four calli on its expanded limb, which is 

 three-lobed, the lobes being most elegantly fringed. The column 

 with the labellum is, in the full-grown flower, about twice as 

 long as the remaining organs of the flower. Here the young 

 bud makes its first appearance exactly as in the above-described 

 species, and as in the other plants spoken of, and very soon 

 passes into the form of a cup, larger in the direction of its 

 breadth. Inside this is first distinctly seen the labellum, and 

 immediately afterwards the other three inner organs of the 

 flower, in a row in front of the labellum. The rest of the 

 development resembles that of the above-named flower, with the 

 distinction that the foot of the column with the confluent la- 

 bellum becomes elongated at a much later period. I have not 

 been able to observe any fusion of the two organs; there is 

 nothing blended in the full-grown flower which was not con- 

 fluent at the time of its first appearance. The considerable 

 elongation of the lower portion of the floral organs presenting 

 itself only at a late period, may be observed, among other 

 instances, in the sexual organs of Cleome and the Passifloreae ; 

 all this must lead me to declare against a subsequent fusion of 

 originally separate organs. In this Epidendrum also, the lateral 

 lobes of the labellum, as well as the calli upon the surface of 

 the limb, appear late. With regard to the column, it must be 

 observed that the anther is not so broad in the full-grown condb^ 

 tion as the organ upon which it rests, while in the young state 

 it is fully three times as broad as the latter, which circumstance 

 again indicates that mode of development of which I have spoken 

 above. 



In this Epidendrum, as perhaps in all Epidendra, the anther 

 is found erect at a comparatively; late epoch ; in some VandecB 

 1 have observed this lying at the bottom of the flower at an 

 early epoch. In Oncidium ampliatum, Lindley, I have seen the 

 anther existing as a little papilla lying in the midst of the inner 

 petals at the epoch when they first begin to expand laterally. 



On the whole, the above observations of development have not 



