30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1885. 



"A Review of the Species of the Genus Pimephales," by Willis 

 S. Blatchley. 



The deaths of Mrs. S. R. Barton, a member, and of John Gwynn 

 Jeffries, a correspondent, were announced. 



Spicate Inflorescence in Cypripedium insigne. — Mr. Thomas 

 Meehan referred to a specimen on the table of Cypripedium 

 insigne, an orchid from the cooler parts of the East Indies, which 

 had a spike with two flowers and other undeveloped buds, the 

 normal character being a one-flowered scape. These departures 

 from the normal form afforded valuable lessons, though frequentby 

 passed over as mere freaks of nature. A spicate inflorescence was 

 a common characteristic in allied species. From the illustration 

 before us, we might infer that the one-flowered kinds were species 

 in which the power to develop a proper spike had been arrested. 

 We might expect to see attempts at this form of inflorescence in 

 Cypripedium acaule of our own country. 



A very important lesson from these occasional departures had 

 but recently the attention given to it that it properly deserved, 

 and that was that whenever any particular plant departed from 

 its normal form, other characters came into existence, which, in 

 a separate plant would, and often did, obtain for the new depar- 

 ture the rank of a species. In this instance, the second flower on 

 the spike was different from the lower and normal one in the 

 upper segment of the perianth (sepals) having a regular outline. 

 In the normal form it was so crumpled as to present a trilobed 

 appearance. In the normal form the labellum was so elongated 

 as to be three times the length of the column. In the upper 

 flower the labellum was but double the length, giving it a some- 

 what globular appearance. There were other variations that 

 formed a combination of characters quite sufficient to mark a 

 species if they were constantly produced in a separate state. Why 

 could not this rare occurrence become a continuous one, and thus 

 a new species be formed — created, we may say — out of an older 

 one ? There can be no reason. We may call this a freak of 

 nature, but it could not have occurred without that combination 

 of circumstances which we call law. We have no warranty for 

 saying that a law which has operated to produce a departure in a 

 solitary instance like this, might not have a more permanent 

 power at some other time. Nor is there any warranty for believing 

 that a law that has operated as we see here on one plant, might 

 not operate on a hundred, or on all the plants of a district, or 

 .vcu on plants in separate districts widely separated from each 

 other. 



In a paper by himself published in the Proceedings of the Troy 

 Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, " On the introduction of species bj- sudden leaps, " as well 



