196 VANDE.E. Chap. VIL 



and are extended symmetrically. In C. saccatum the 

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

 tat urn, but rather lower down ; whilst the right arm 

 hangs downwards paralysed, with the hand turned a 

 little outwards. In every case notice w411 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. 



Gatasetmn tridentatum is interesting under another 

 point of view. Botanists were astonished when Sir R. 

 Schomburgk* stated that he had seen three forms, 

 believed to constitute three distinct genera, namely, 

 Catasetum tridentatum, Monachanthus viridis, and 

 Mijantlius harbatus, 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 G. tridentatum in Essequibo with- 

 out ever finding one specimen with seeds ;{ whereas 



* 'Transaciions of tlioLinntan Bristol. Lastly Dean Herbert 



See' vol. xvii. p. 522. Another infonned me many years n go that 



account by Dr. Lindley appeared Cataseium luridum flowered »nd 



in the 'Lutanicul Kegister,' fol. kept true for nine years in the 



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



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



ing on the same scape : he alludes which as we shall pr< seutly see is 



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



dowers in these cases were in an in- form between tlie male and f«-male. 



termediate condition, which is not ]M. Duchartro has given a full his- 



snrprising, i^eting that in dioecious tori' al at-couot of the appearance 



plants we some tim«siiave a pirtial of tliese forms on the same plant, 



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



both sexes. Mr. IL dgers of River- France,' vol ix. 1862, p. US. 



hill informs me ti. at he iinportid t The ^' Vegetable Kingdom,* 



from De erara a Myanthus, and 1S53, p. 178. 



ti.ai v\h n it tlowered a second % Bmngniart states ('Bull, de 



t,i...e it was inetamorphosed into la Soc. B-t. de France,' toiu. ii. 



a Ci.ta^elum. Dr. Carpenter ]8.'i5, p. 20) that M. Neumann, a 



('Compan.tive Physiology,' 4th gi^ilful fertiliser of Orchids, could 



e<iit. p. tiyS) alludes to an ana- never succeed in fertilising Cata- 



logons case which occurred at setum. 



