avery vivid imagination indeed to regard these states as 
specific, especially so should there be an untwisting ac- 
tion during the ripening of the capsule. If we turn once 
more to Darwin we find that he observed this phenome- 
non in Malaais paludosa and referred to it as follows: 
‘In all Orchids the labellum is properly directed up- 
wards, but assumes its usual position on the lower side 
of the flower by the twisting of the ovarium; but in Ma- 
laxis the twisting has been carried so far that the flower 
occupies the position it would have held if the ovarium 
had not been at all twisted, and which the ripe ovarium 
afterwards assumes, by a process of gradual untwisting. ”’ 
(l.c.p.131) The untwisting of the pedicel or ovary during 
the ripening of the fruit rather belittles resupination as 
a specific character. 
As I have previously stated, the flowers of the Fu- 
rasian Malaxis monophyllos have been turned complete- 
ly round by a twist of 360 degrees in the pedicel. M. 
monophyllos, therefore, would seem to have had an evo- 
lutionary background comparable to that of M. paludosa, 
and at one stage in its history it had resupinate flowers 
similar in this respect to those of the American plant 
recognized as a distinct species by Professor Fernald. If, 
as Darwin suggested for M.paludosa, there is a process 
of untwisting as the capsule matures, it may well be that 
M.monophyllos, in so far as torsion is concerned, even 
now may become equivalent (if only for a brief time) to 
M. monophyllos var. brachypoda. In any event we should 
not overlook the fact that the labellum is adaxial in the 
bud in the American var. brachypoda and therefore non- 
resupinate and comparable in this respect before anthesis 
to the Eurasian M. monophyllos. It would certainly be 
stretching a point to argue that a single plant could be 
one species in the bud and quite another species in the 
expanded flower. 
[181 ] 
