38G 



ANDIKECIUM OF 



positive sign of fusion in tlw bnicts or other part of the flower, seemed, 

 however, to negative the idea of fusion,' 



A similar illusti-ation, for a knowledge of which the writer is in- 

 debted to the kindness of Professor Asa Gray and Mr. Darwin, occurred 

 in some specimens of Pogonia ophioglossoidea collected by Dr. J. H. 

 Paine in a bog near Utica, New York. It will be seen fi-om the fol- 

 lowing description that these flowers presented an almost precisely 

 similar condition to those of the Oplirya aranifera just mentioned. " The 

 peculiarities of these flowers," writes Professor Gray, " are that they 

 have three labella, and that the column is resolved into small petaloid 

 organs. The blossom is normal as to the proper perianth, except that 

 the labellum is unusually papillose, bearded almost to the base. The 

 points of interest are, first, that the two accessory labella are just in 

 the position of the two suppressed stamens of the outer series, viz. of 

 A 2 and A 3, as represented in the diagram, fig. 192 ; and there is a small 

 petaloid body on the other side of the flower, answeiing to the other 

 stamen, a 1. Secondly, in one of the blossoms, and less distinctly in 

 another, two lateral stamens of the inner series (a 1 and a 2) are repre- 

 sented each by a slender naked filament. There are remaining petaloid 

 bodies enough to answer for the third stamen of the inner series and 

 for the stigmas, but their order is not well to be made out in the dried 

 specimens." It may here be mentioned that Isochihis is normally 

 triandrous. 



A tetrandrous flower of Cypripedium has also been recorded. 



In Isochihis, according to Cxtiger, there ai*e often five stamens, and 



Fio. 195. Diagi'am of flower of Chxhis ntascula with two additional 

 lips, two perfect and two imperfect stamens (alter Cramer). 



' Masters. * Joum. Linn. Soc.,' viii, p. 207. See also Rodigas, ' Ball. 

 Soc. Bot. Belg.,' iv, p. 2()6, for similar changes in Cypripedium Hookera . 



