78 



Mr. Grootings at Batavia brought a great number of speci- 

 mens of this species from Borneo. Among the first inflorescences 

 developing at Batavia several were abnormal showing transitions 

 to leafshoots. Mr, Grootings was kind enough to hand over to 

 us the said abnormities for a closer examination. 



1°. A branchlet with roots at the base produces in the axil 

 of a normal bract a normal flower and lengthens beyond this 

 to an ordinary leafy shoot. 



2°. A similar branchlet with roots shows leaves, which are 

 partly petaloid (coloured), amongst the ordinary ones. 



3°. A root-bearing ditto with a flower in the axil of one of 

 the fairly normal though small leaves. From one of the lowest 

 sheaths of the same springs a little branch. The above flower 

 is dimerous, its column on the left side w^eakly developed. 



As on the right sepal an inward projecting ridge divides it 

 into two parts which may represent two cohering sepals, the 

 flower admits still of another explanation, viz.: 3 sepals, of 

 which two coalesce, and a corolla of which a lateral petal is 

 wanting. Is this the best explanation, then the flower connects 

 itself in a quite natural way with n°. 5. 



4°. A root-bearing twig with a normal flower and moreover, 

 in one of the lower axils, an abnormal one. The latter is di- 

 merous, the labellum is adnate to the column and the pes 

 gynostemii, the petal to the column only. 



5°. A root-bearing shoot without leaves with abnormal flower : 

 column on one side (the left) incompletely developed, left anther- 

 cell defective. Left sepal considerably smaller than the two other 

 ones, left petal wanting. Pes gynostemii doubled (fig. 34, 35), 

 each of the parts with a distinct cavity and a labellum. The left 

 sepal embraces the double pes and alternates with the labella. 

 6°. Inflorescence of two flowers, destitute of leaves and lacking 

 roots. One of these flowers is pseudo-dimerous and has both 

 column and pes laterally compressed. The second flower was lost. 



Apart from the above instances relative to our remarks on 

 p. 76 we mention the following specimen of D. superbum which 

 was collected in January 1895 in the Gardens of Buitenzorg. 



