36 Prof. Link on the Structure of the Orchidacez. 
V.—Observations on the Structure of the Orchidacee, particu- 
larly the Vaidee. By Prof. H. F. Link *. 
Linpey, who has contributed so much to the knowledge of the 
Orchidacez, gives them the following character in his ‘ Vege- 
table Kingdom.’ He ascribes to them a trifoliate calyx, a tri- 
foliate corolla, the third segment of which, the labellum, is of 
very different form from the other two; further, three stamens, 
of which either the two outermost are abortive, and only the in- 
termediate one bears an anther, or the intermediate one is abor- 
tive, and the two outer bear anthers; finally, three divisions of 
the stigma. In reference to the stamens and the stigma he 
wholly follows R. Brown. But he directs attention to an ano- 
maly, relating to the stigma, which consists in the fact that the 
seminiferous portions of the ovary are not opposite to the lobes 
of the stigma, but alternate with them, as the seedless portions 
occur in a line with the lobes; so that we ought therefore to say 
that the ovary consists of six carpellary leaves. 
R. Brown came to the idea that the Orchidacez have properly 
three stamens, from the circumstance that there occurs very fre- 
quently, especially in the New Holland Orchidacez, on each side 
of the anther-bearmg column, an appendix which represents 
those stamens. He observes indeed, that those appendices also 
occur when, from a higher degree of development, three stamens 
are present, for we have examples of this; and he does not con- 
ceal that these appendices are devoid of vessels, but he adds that 
he does not consider the presence of these as determining an 
organ. It appears to me however, in opposition to the opimion 
of this celebrated observer, that the presence of such vessels 1s 
indispensably necessary to the determination of an organ. For 
in all the organs of the Phanerogamia the vascular bundles (of 
spiral or pseudo-porous vessels, or both together) form the foun- 
dation of the organ, nay, even determine its form, and there is 
no organ of any importance without them. In the Naiadez, and 
if instead of Phanerogamia we use the more definite word Pha- 
nerophytes, in the Mosses, tubes or elongated cells occur instead 
of them in the interior of the organ. From this it follows that 
they are the sap-bringing vessels. It is requisite to know there- 
fore what is the condition of the vascular bundles in the column 
of the Orchidacean flower, when stamens and style are united. 
Before we enter upon this inquiry, the followmg remarks are 
necessary. All botanists, except Linnzeus, make the labellum a 
division or leaflet of the perigone and of its inner circle, which 
* Extract from a Treatise read before the Berlin Academy of Sciences ; 
translated from the ‘ Botanische Zeitung,’ by Arthur Henfrey, F.L.S. 
