IX ORC TTI1)E/E AND ASC'LEPIADE.E. 495 



ions ramuli, wliicli spread tluMusclvcs amoiip; Uie oviila, and 

 sej)aratc thciu into irregnlar gronps. 



Jlcnce, according to this antlior, a coninuinication is 

 establislied l)et\vecn tho anthcra and tlie ovnla, which he 

 adds are impregnated throngli tlicir snrface, and not, as 

 lie snpposes to ])c tlie case in other families, throngli their 

 I'linicnlus or point of attachment to the placenta. 



The remarkable account of the stigma here quoted, 

 tliongU coming from so distingnislied and original an ob- 

 server, and one who liad particularly studied this family of 

 plants, seems either to have been entirely overlooked, or 

 in some degree discredited by more recent writers, none of 

 whom, as far as I can find, have even alluded to it. And 

 I confess it entirely esca])ed me until after I had made the 

 observations which will be stated in the present essay, and 

 which confirm its accuracy as to the existence and course 

 of the parietal cords, though not as to their nature and 

 origin. 



In 1824 Professor Link^ expresses his opinion that the 

 rostellum of Richard is without doubt the true stigma. 



In 18.:29 ^h. Lindley," who for several years has par- 

 ticularly studied and has lately published part of a valuable 

 systematic work on Orchideous Plants, states that in this 

 family impregnation takes effect by absorption from the 

 pollen masses through their gland into the stigmatic 

 channel. 



In 1S30, in his Introduction to the Natural System of 

 Botany, the same statement is repeated; and in this -g9»^ 

 work it also appears that he regards the glands to which 

 the pollen masses become attached in Ophrydeae as derived 

 from the stamen, and not belonging to the stigma," as in 

 1810 I had described them. It would even appear, from 

 a passage in his systematic work' published in the same 



1 F/iiios. Bot. p. 29S. - Spiops. Brit. Flor. p. 25G. 



3 "The pollen is not less curious. Now we have it in separate frrains, as in 

 other plants, but cohcrini^ to a mesh-work of cellular tissue, which is collected 

 into a sort of central elastic strap; now the granules cohere in small anu'ular 

 inclefinile masses, and the central elastic strap becomes more apjiarent, has a 

 glandular extremity, which is often reclined in a peculiar pouch especially 

 destined for its protection." — Introduct. to Nat. Sj/st. of Bot. p. 2G.S. 



•• Ge)K (Old Sp. of Orchid. Part I, p. 3. 



