77 



purchased by Mr. Holford of Messrs. Rollissons of Tooting as 

 Cycnoches ventricosum. 



Here it will be seen 

 that fig. 2. is nearly 

 Cycnoches ventricosum^ 

 but its lip is here and 

 there raised into warts, 

 which are the begin- 

 ning of the lobes of 

 C. Egertonianum^ and 

 moreover some of the 

 dark purple of the 

 latter is appearing at 

 the base of the column 

 and the tips of the 

 sepals. At fig. 3. the 

 purple of Egertonia- 

 num is displacing the 

 green of ventricosum, 

 the sepals are rolling 

 back, and the label- 

 lum is almost wholly 

 changed, but the sepals 

 are still those of C. 

 ventricosum. At fig. 4. 

 and 5. the transforma- 

 tion is complete. 



Another curious 

 point in this instance 

 is that the transforma- 

 tions occur in no cer- 

 tain order. The lowest 

 flower on the spike. 

 No. 1, is more Eyertonianum than ventricosum ; the next above 

 it. No. 2, is almost wholly ventricosum ; that which succeeds. 

 No. 3, is more ventricosum than Egertonianum ; and 4 and 5, 

 the last on the spike, are wholly Egertonianum. 



What with such cases as this, the Dean of Manchester's 

 Narcissi, and the singular hybrids with which botanists 

 are becoming familiar, all ideas of species and stability of 

 structure in the vegetable kingdom, are shaken to their 

 foundation. 



