Prof. Link on the Structure of the Orchidacer. 37 
Lindley calls the corolla.. Yet the labellum never stands in a 
circle with the two leaflets of this corolla, but always with the 
column (columna, gymnostemium), in which stamens and style are 
blended together ; indeed in most cases it is itself confluent with 
this. Lindley himself mentions this, and adds, that im some 
species of the Cape genus Pier; ygodium the labellum proceeds 
from the apex of the column. If in these cases we should assume 
an external adherence of the labelluin to the column, which how- 
ever in some, especially in Scaphyglottis, could not be supposed, 
on account of the insensible transition, then the base of it 
ought to stand in a circle with the leaflets of the corolla, which 
never happens. Even in the cases where the labellum appears 
quite separate from the column, in Cattleya, many Mazillarie, 
and also in our indigenous species of Orchidacez, there is always 
a confluence of the base with the column, above the leaflets of 
the corolla. It does not admit of doubt, that the prevalence of 
the number three in the class of Monocotyledons gave rise to the 
idea that the labellum belongs to the corolla. But facts are pre- 
ferable to opinions. 
Moreover if we examine the upper side of the column in the 
indigenous Orchidacee, e. g. in Orchis itself, we see a part, broad 
below and running up into a point above, embracing the two 
anther-cells. This is evidently a connecticulum ; that is, the upper 
expanded part of the stamen, which bears the two chambers of 
the anther. If we make a transverse section, first through the 
upper part of the column, where the excavation of the stigma is 
still shallow, we see a large vascular bundle on the outer side; 
further in, another smaller; but not a trace of a vascular bundle 
on either side. Lower down, where the cavity of the stigma is 
much expanded, we find three vascular bundles, but in a straight 
line from the upper surface to the cavity of the stigma. The 
three vascular bundles cannot therefore denote three stamens, 
but belong only to the one stamen and the style, im which the 
vascular bundles usually surround the stigmatic canal on two or 
three sides. The lateral wings, which are here very thick and 
arched, certainly have delicate spiral vessels, but horizontal m 
direction, while if they belonged to stamens they ought to run 
vertically from below upward. 
When we examine, further, the column of one of the Vandee 
or Epidendree, we find the operculum of the anther, which like- 
wise represents a connecticulum, distinctly surrounded by another 
part, which is very often furnished with various appendices and 
wings, clearly belonging to the external envelope of the column. 
I have given an enlarged transverse section in my Anatomical 
Plates, pl. 19 & 20, from Epidendrum elongatum. Here the stig- 
matic canal is surrounded by a quantity of vascular bundles, 
