289 



KOTES ON MASCAEENE OllCKIDOLOGY. 



By S. Le M. Mooke, F.L.S. 



(Tab. 181.) 



Having been engaged during the last few weeks in working up the 

 Orchids of Mauritiusfor Mr. Baker's forthcoming Flora, I take the present 

 opportunity of setting down a few notes which will probably interest 

 somereadersof the Journal. In doing so, however, I must crave leniency, 

 for the task of interpreting the different arrangements of the parts in 

 this family is sufficiently difficult when the flowers are fresh, and 

 much more so when one has access only to dried material. These 

 notes must therefore be regarded as mere suggestions, which will have 

 to be invalidated, or confirmed and extended, by persons resident in 

 the native haunts of the plants, and the object in publishing them will 

 be gained if such should be the result. 



Moncecism in Eulophia scripta, LdL — It was a fact well known to 

 Richard (Orch. Maur., p. 48) that the flowers of Eidophia scripta 

 present themselves in two forms recognised externally in this way — 

 that in one case the ovary is somewhat swollen, while the ovaries of 

 the other set remain thin and undistinguishable from their subjoined 

 pedicels. This difference is associated with dimorphism in the column, 

 which in the flowers of the first form is straight and stout with strongly 

 developed lateral wings, has a length of \ inch, and shows near its top 

 a large viscid stigma crowned by what appears to be a rudimentary pollen- 

 apparatus, though I was not able satisfactorily to make out the exact 

 structure of this latter. On the other hand, flowers with slender ovaries 

 have a shorter {\ inch) slender incurved column with a rudimentary 

 stigma associated with normal pollinia, and this form of column is further 

 remarkable for bearing at its base two membranous folds which meet 

 in the middle line and overlap so as to form a tube continuous with 

 the spur of the labellum (fig. 1). These folds are not present, I be- 

 lieve, in the column of the large-ovaried flowers, though, as my ex- 

 perience is very limited, I do not wish to make any assertion in the 

 matter. Their probable function is as directors of an insect's head 

 against the rostellum, and their absence from the other type of column is 

 explained by the fact that here there is no normal rostellum, but a 

 large stigma, whose position enables it to receive pollen without any 

 such aid. Further, the segments of the perianth in both these types 

 are covered with large purple blotches, which on a yellowish-green 

 ground contribute efi'ectively in rendering the flower attractive ; but 

 there is a form figured by Thouars (Orch. Afr., t. 45) under the name of 

 jE. {Limodorum) concolor, which differs from the blotched form only in 

 having its perianth of an uniform tint. It has occurred to me that this 

 N.s. VOL. 5. [October, 1876.] u 



