brought to light repeatedly by several workers in several 
plant families. So it becomes unnecessary to consider 
Saunders’ attack with any seriousness. 
However, one difficulty that may be postulated against 
favoring the classical view of the orchid carpel is that of 
the irregularity of the origin and differentiation of the 
median and marginal traces of each carpel. But this ob- 
jection, if it can really be called an objection, will be nul- 
lified when we take into consideration the high degree of 
anastomoses, cohesion, adnation and other allied phe- 
nomena accompanying the structural evolution of the 
flower. 
SUMMARY 
The orchid ovary is traversed by six main vascular 
traces. In the Cypripedilinae, the origin and subsequent 
development of these six traces are not attended by any 
secondary modifications. But among the monandrous 
genera, a series of increasingly complex and diverse pat- 
terns is witnessed; thus the number of vascular bundles 
that enter into the construction of the flower from the 
inflorescence axis is usually three, but this may be re- 
duced to two; their method of breaking up into the six 
main traces of the ovary also is highly diverse in different 
genera. None of the main traces of the ovary show any 
signs of supply either to the placentae or to the ovules. 
The main traces begin to break up and supply the other 
floral members only at the upper extremity of the ovary. 
Depending largely upon the presence or absence, num- 
ber and nature of the vascular traces supplying the sta- 
mens, three types of vasculature of orchid flowers are 
recognized: Type I, characterizing the Cypripedilinae, 
Type II, characterizing the Ophrydinae and Type III, 
characterizing the rest of the Monandrae. 
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