THE RACEMOSE SOLENID. 
140 
The plant has much the appearance of an Oncidium, in its manner of growth, foliage, and 
flowers, but it is materially different in structure. The original definition of the genus, framed upon 
an examination of shrivelled and crushed flowers, is in some respects erroneous, and is now set right. 
The lip is not furnished near the end with two teeth ; that appearance was produced by the two feathery 
plates which occupy the lip (fig. 4) having been pressed into a mass inseparable from the lip itself ; 
and the incumbent position of the pollen-masses with respect to their caudicle arose from the same 
cause and is not natural in the plant. 
The main differences between Solenidium and Oncidium consist 
in this; that the column is earless and has a thin membranous border, 
terminating upwards in a thin triangular tooth, and rounded off above 
the base; beneath the lower end of the column stands a pair of distinct 
but minute glands, which must be analogous to the column ears of 
Oncidium, if there is any analogy between them. The crest of the lip, 
which in Oncidium is composed of three or some other uneven number of 
tubercles, is here replaced by a pair of long feathery plates which stand 
considerably above the lip itself, and being free at the end look in profile 
like a pair of shaggy ears. All this is very unsuccessfully represented 
on our plate at A. Variable as is the crest of the lip of Oncids it 
presents no structure approaching this, not even in the pulvinate 
division. The feathery plates are more like the raised lines of 
Cymbidium or Brassia, but the column and its peculiar basal glands 
resemble neither the one nor the other. 
The feathery processes upon the lip, and the glands on the column, 
of Solenidium will be regarded as staminodes (abortive stamina), 
belonging—the first to the same series as the perfect stamen, and the 
last to a supposed inner series of undeveloped stamens, provided the 
theory referred to in Folia Orchidacea under Zygostates should be 
accepted by botanists. According to this theory the staminal apparatus 
of an Orchidaceous plant consists of two rings or whorls, each composed 
of three stamens more or less developed. In general the central of the 
outer whorl is alone perfect ; while in Cypripedium perfection is 
confined to the two lateral inner stamens. The rest of the stamens are 
either wholly suppressed, as in many Dendrobes, or appear in the form 
of ears to the column or crests upon the lip; the ears of the column 
sometimes representing the lateral inner staminodes, and the crests of the 
lip being made up either of two lateral outer and one central inner 
staminode, or of either. Such evidence as exists upon this subject 
appears favourable to the opinion; which would be conclusively 
established if the crests of the lip were detected bearing pollen, a 
circumstance that has not yet been observed. 
Upon. this theory, the accompanying diagrams will represent the 
condition of the staminal apparatus in the different modifications 
which this Order produces. (In all cases but one, No. 5, the exterior 
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