ORCHIDS AND EVOLUTION COSTANTIN. 357 



associated with species of Phalaenopsis and Vanda; and a third 

 restricted to the Odontoglossums. These fungi, ordinarily, parasites, 

 can be cultivated away from their usual host upon an artificial 

 medium. It is then found that their threads have the property of 

 rolling up upon themselves into a ball, so that under artificial con- 

 ditions they conduct themselves in the same manner as in the cells 

 of the host which they have invaded in the usual fashion. It seems 

 probable that here one has to do with a property of acquired 

 heredity which enables them to exist independently of the cause 

 which has produced them. 



Wlien a Phalaenopsis is inoculated with the fungus from a Cypri- 

 pedium, or an Odontoglossum with that of a Vanda, one may have, 

 according to the case, a disease which is often of an infectious char- 

 acter, or wholly negative results. Very often the foreign fungus pen- 

 etrates the seed, provokes the beginning of gennination, then devel- 

 opment is arrested ; afterwards a new infection is produced which is 

 this time fatal, and the plant dies. The parasite has regained its 

 formidable destructive character, which was evidently its primitive 

 condition. It may happen, on the contrary, that the fungus is de- 

 feated in the combat ; it penetrates the seed, but is completely digested 

 and germination does not take place. There is finally another case 

 which is of special interest: This is when the parasite and the host 

 are adapted to each other, and a new association is formed. If, as 

 we have previously suggested, the orchid was partly created by the 

 fungus, there is every reason to believe that this change will modify 

 the germinative evolution, and abnormal types will be produced. In 

 fact, such monstrosities have been secured with a Cymbidium, and 

 more successfully with a Vanda, In the latter genus, in place of 

 having a plant with a simple stem and of symmetrical growth, there 

 was obtained a small bod}^ Avith two, three, four, or even nine 

 branches. Mons. Bernard was able to grow some of these strange little 

 plants for several months. He even sent some of them to horticul- 

 turists in hope that they might know how to continue their growth 

 and bring them to flower. An unfortunate and vexatious accident 

 interrupted the attempt. The mistake of a workman caused the 

 destruction of the precious plants, and what might have been learned 

 from them is still a secret. Still, if the ideas which we have expressed 

 are correct, we do not hesitate to believe that if such a product had 

 been brought to maturity, it must have given the most unexpected 

 results. Horticulturists have known how to obtain extraordinary and 

 very interesting types hj hybridizing species with one another; but 

 it is known that anomalies may be produced in the vegetable kingdom 

 otherwise than by crossings. Mons. Blaringhem has shown that vari- 

 ous forms of transmission, such as division, torsion, and compression, 

 can direct evolution along new paths, and create characters previously 



