172 cruqer's organographical observations 



just as distinctly seen all the stamens appear simultaneously. I 

 have observed the same in the innermost circle of appendicular 

 organs in the Scitamineae, which in Costus, for example, appear 

 clearly all at once*. In Musa rosacea, it will be recollected, 

 even the segments of the perianth all originate at one time, so 

 that they do not always overlie one another in the same way. 

 In like manner we have seen the labellum of Musa sapientum 

 originate with the stamens, but it would scarcely occur to any one 

 to explain it as a metamorphosed stamen on this ground, since 

 it is too strongly characterized by position and form, and by the 

 fact that a stamen often stands before it in monstrous flowers. 

 On the other hand, it cannot be denied that the said circum- 

 stance referring to the period of its development, and the frequent 

 transformation of stamens into labelloid bodies, indicates a kind 

 of transition from one to the other. 



Few flowers indeed have been the subject of so many theories 

 as the Orchideae. Without enlarging upon the literature of this 

 point, I must yet observe that Lindley, in his * Vegetable King- 

 dom,^ retains his older view on this subject, and only indicates 

 an alteration on one point. While assuming, as above men- 

 tioned, an additional circle of organs on the outside, he calls the 

 inner organs, immediately surrounding the column, metamor- 

 phosed stamens, and presumes that the stamens contained in 



* In the not very distantly related Bromeliacese I have observed the same 

 in Billhergia, although a portion of the stamens is blended with the inner seg- 

 ments of the perianth in the full-grown flower. Another condition allows of 

 the conclusion of a simultaneous origin of the stamens in this flower. As is 

 well known, the organs are all more or less twisted, and in such a manner that 

 the petals exhibit an opposite direction to the sepals, and so on ; the lobes of 

 the stigma have the direction of the second circle. Now if the stamens origi- 

 nated at two successive epochs, the lobes of the stigma ought to exhibit the 

 eame direction as the sepals. The different direction of succeeding circles in 

 twisted flowers, very evident sometimes in the calyx and corolla of the Mela- 

 stomacese also (in the Apocyneae where, as is well known, the segments of the 

 calyx stand in the quincunx, the direction of the corolla is opposite to the 

 spiral described by the sepals), is certainly most favourable to the movement of 

 the organs in the interior of the flower during their growth. It must be 

 remembered also that this direction, different when seen from outside, is the 

 same where two circles touch, and that if the opposite condition occurred, the 

 organs must be interposed between each other. How far that consideration 

 can be used as a criterion, as I have ventured to use it in the Bromeliaceae, I 

 must leave for the decision of the masters of science. 



