IN ORCHIDE^ AND ASCLEPIADEjE. 193 



denominates tliat part, before tlic pollen masses are j^^'J 

 attached to it, "stigma virpincum/'' it may l)C considered 

 as Ijelonging to the same class. 



Koelreuter, the next writer in point of time, and whose 

 essay was pnl)lished before Linn.eus's (piery apj)eared, 

 states, in 1775,^ that tlie pollen masses, wliicli he denoni'- 

 nates naked anthera?, im])art their fecnndating matter to 

 the surface of the cells of the true anthera, regarded by 

 him consequently as stigma, and tliat tlu'ougli tliis surface 

 it is absorbed and conveyed to the ovarium. 



In 17S7, Dr. Jonathan Stokes- conjectures that in Or- 

 chideoD, as well as in Asclepiadcce, the male influence, or 

 })rinciple of arrangement, as it is termed by John Hunter, 

 may be conveyed to the embryo without the intervention 

 of air : a repetition certainly of Linnicus's conjecture, with 

 which, however, as it Avas not published till 1791, he could 

 not have been acquainted. 



In 1791, Batsch^ states that in Orchis and Ophrys, — 

 and his observation may be extended at least to all Saty- 

 riuDC or Ophrydea^, — the only way in which the mass of 

 pollen can act on the ovarium, is by the retrogradation of 

 the impregnating power through the pedunculus or caudi- 

 cula of the pollen mass to the gland beneath it, which 

 he is disposed to refer rather to the stigma than to the 

 anthera. 



The late Professor Hichard, in 1802,^ expressly says that 

 fecundation is operated in Orchidea} and Asclejiiadea^ with- 

 out a change of place in the stamina ; his opinion therefore 

 must be considered identical with that of Batsch, and ex- 

 tended to the Avhole order. 



It might perhaps be inferred from the descrii)tion which 

 I gave of Orchidca3 in a work publislied in isiQ/ that my 

 opinion respecting themode of inq)regnation agreed with ii^yj 

 that of Batsch and Bichard, though it is not there actually 

 expressed, nor indeed very clearly in another publication 

 of nearly the same date/' in which I had adverted to this 



1 Acl. PJif/s. Palal. iii, p, 55. •: 7/7///. Bui. Arrang. 2iid cd. ii, p. 0G4. 

 3 Botanische Bemcrk. i, p. :{, ' Diet. ' de Bol an. jia'r Bui Hard, cd. 2. p. 5G. 



5 Frodr. F/or. Xor.Jio/l, \, p. 'MO. ''' II fi//. Sor. Trmimct. x. p. 19. 



