196 VAXDE-E. Chap. VII 



and are extended svnimetricallv. In C. fsaeeatum the 

 left arm is bowed and held in front, as in C. triden- 

 tatum, but rather lower down ; whilst the right arm 

 liangs downwards paralysed, with the hand turned a 

 little outwards. In every case notice will be given in 

 an admirable manner, when an insect visits the label- 

 lum, and the time has arrived for the ejection of the 

 pollinium, so that it may be transported to the female 

 plant. 



Catasetum tridentatum is interestini'- under another 

 point of view. Botanists were astonished when Sir IL 

 Schomburgk* stated that he had seen three forms, 

 believed to constitute three distinct genera, namely, 

 Catasetum tridentatum, MonachantJms viridis, and 

 Myanthus harhatus, all growing on the same plant. 

 Lindley remarked t that "such cases shake to the 

 foundation all our ideas of the stability of genera and 

 species." Sir R. Schomburgk affirms that he has seen 

 hundreds of plants of C. tridentatum in Essequibo with- 

 out ever finding one specimen with seeds ;X ^vhereas 



* ' Transactions of the Linnean Bristol. Lastly Dean Herbert 



Soc' vol. xvii. p. 522. Another informed nie many j^ears ago that 



account by Ur. Lindley appeared Catasetum luriduni flowered and 



in the 'Botanical Register,' fol. kept true for nine years iu the 



1951, of a distinct species of My- Botanic Garden at York ; it then 



anthus and Mouachauthus appear- threw up a scape of a Myanthus, 



ing on the same scape : he alludes which as we shall presently see is 



also to other cases. Some of the an hermaphrodite, intermediate iu 



flowers in these cases were in an in- form between tlie male and female, 



termediate condition, which is not JNI. Duchartre has giveu a full his- 



surprising, seeing that in dioecious torical account of the appearance 



plants we sometimes have a partial of these forms on the same plant, 



resumption of the characters of iu 'Bull, de la Soc. Bot. de 



l>oth sexes. ]\Ir. Eodgcrs of Iviver- France,' vol. is. 1SG2, p. llo. 

 hill informs mo tiiat he imported t The 'Vegetable Kingdom,' 



from Demerara a Myanthus, and 18.^3, p. 178. 

 that when it flowered a second J Brongniart states (' Bull, de 



time it was luetamorphosed into la Soc. B'lt. de France.' torn. ii. 



.1 Catasetum. Dr. Carpenter ]8.")5, p. '20) thiit i\I. Neumann, a 



(' Comijarative Physiology,' 4th skilful fertiliser of Orchids, could 



edit. p. 633) alludes to an ana- never succeed in fertilising Cata- 



logoua Cdse which occmred at setum. 



