261 



while only one perfect stamen is developed, two others exist in a rudimentary 

 state ; so that the ternary number prevalent in Monocotyledons is not departed 

 from. So it is in Orchideae ; the column does not consist of a single filament 

 cohering with a style, but of three filaments firmly grown together, the cen- 

 tral of which is antheriferous, the lateral sterile, or, as in Cypripedium, the cen- 

 tral sterile, the two lateral antheriferous. This is proved, in the former case, by 

 the frequent presence of callosities, or processes in the place of the sterile sta- 

 mens; by imperfectly-formed anthers occasionally appearing at the side of the 

 perfect one ; and, if any further evidence were wanted, by monsters, in which 

 a regular structure is exchanged for the ordinary irregular one. Such an in- 

 stance in Orchis latifolia is described by M. Achille Richard, in the Mtmoires 

 de la Soc. d'Hist. Nat. of Paris, in which the flowers were perfectly triandrous, 

 with no trace of irregularity in any part of the floral envelopes. 



Orchideae are remarkable for the bizarre figure of their multiform flower, 

 which sometimes represents an insect, sometimes a helmet with the visor up, 

 and sometimes a grinning monkey : so various are those forms, so numerous 

 their colours, and so complicated their combinations, that there is scarcely a 

 common reptile or insect to which some of them have not been likened. They 

 all, however, will be found to consist of three outer pieces belonging to the 

 calyx, and three inner belonging to the corolla ; and all departures from this 

 number, six, depends upon the cohesion of contiguous parts, with the solitary 

 exception of Monomeria, in which the lateral petals are entirely abortive. 

 Sometimes two of the sepals cohere into one, as in Cypripedium, and then the 

 calyx has the appearance of consisting of but two sepals ; sometimes the late- 

 ral petals are connate with the column, as in Gongora and probably Lepan- 

 thes, and then the column appears furnished with two wings. In nearly the 

 whole order the odd petal, called the labellum, arises from the base of the 

 column, and is opposite it ; but in the Cape genus Pterygodium, the lip some- 

 times grows from the apex of the column, and sometimes is stalked and turned 

 completely over between the fork of the inverted anther, and thus seems to be- 

 long to the back of the column. Nor is the anther less subject to modification, 

 although constant to its place ; sometimes it stands erect, the line of dehiscence 

 of its lobes being turned towards the labellum ; sometimes it is turned upside 

 down, so that its back regards the lip ; often it is prone upon the apex of the 

 column, where a niche is excavated for its reception. The pollen is not less 

 curious : now we have it in separate grains, as in other plants, but cohering 

 to a meshwork of cellular tissue, which is collected into a sort of central elastic 

 strap ; now the granules cohere in small angular indefinite masses, and the 

 central elastic strap becomes more apparent, has a glandular extremity, which 

 is often reclined in a peculiar pouch especially destined for its protection ; again 

 the pollen combines into larger masses, which are definite in number, and at- 

 tached to another modification of the elastic strap; and finally a complete 

 union of the pollen takes place, in solid waxy masses, without any distinct trace 

 of this central elastic tissue. Such is a part of the singularities of Orchideous 

 plants, and upon these the distinctions of their tribes and genera are naturally 

 founded. Whoever studies them must bear in mind that their fructification is 

 always reducible to 3 sepals, 3 petals, a column consisting of stamens grown 

 firmly to one another, and to a single style and stigma ; and, with this in 

 view, he will have no difficulty in understanding the organization of even the 

 most anomalous Cape species. For a long time it was supposed that no de- 

 viation from the general structure existed, and that we had not in Orchideae 

 any very decided link between that family and others ; but the discovery of a 

 remarkable Indian plant by Blume and Wallich, called Apostasia by the former 

 botanist, which, with many of the peculiarities of Orchideae, is triandrous with 

 a regular corolla and threa-locular fruit, seems to show that even in this tribe 



