setum tridentatum ; that is to say, destitute of the crested 

 appendage, and perfectly galeate and naked." 



This, I repeat, appeared to me so extraordinary a 

 statement, especially as after seven years it had never been 

 corroborated by any other case of the same kind, that I 

 concluded I must have made some mistake, and I accord- 

 ingly formed the genus Myanthus out of a species nearly 

 allied to the very Catasetum cristatum, which, in 1826, I 

 had seen sporting back to C. tridentatum. 



Not content with this, I added the genus Monachanthiis, 

 distinguishing it from Catasetum by the want of cirrhi on 

 its column, and by its perianth being turned back ; and 

 when the original species, M. viridis, was sent me from 

 Wentworth, previously to publication in this work, fol. 1752, 

 I felt no doubt of its being an entirely distinct plant. Even 

 when Lord Fitzwilliam assured me that it was beyond all 

 doubt an accidental sport of Catasetum tridentatum, I still 

 adhered to my idea that an imported plant of Monachanthus 

 viridis had been accidentally taken for the latter common 

 species. Nor do 1 think that as a Botanist I was to be blamed 

 for these errors : the genera being founded upon characters 

 which were apparently important, and which most assuredly 

 no one could, a priori, have suspected could pass into each 

 other in the manner that has now been seen. If, however, 

 it should be thought that I ought to have been aware of such 

 metamorphoses, I at least have lost no time in acknowledging 

 the mistakes, and putting others on their guard against 

 them for the future. 



With regard to the particular case now before us, Mr. 

 Paxton has furnished me with the following note : — 



" The monster sent by his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, 

 was produced on a plant of Myanthus cristatus, which also 

 produced a perfect spike of Myanthus cristatus at the same 

 time ; the same plant has flowered twice before, but did not 

 sport : a high state of cultivation appears to favour the 

 production of monsters of this kind. Tliere are more than 

 twenty plants of Myanthus barbatus at Chatsworth, which 

 are almost all different in colour, but none of them have yet 



