362 



MORPHOLOGY. 



I will now call attention to some peculiarities of the family of the 

 Orchidacete, which have hitherto remained wholly unexplained. The least 

 remarkable of these is, that the pollen is often formed in more than four 

 (eight to sixteen) different portions, and therefore more than the usual 

 fourloculi exist ; as in Calanthe, Bletia, &c. : the most usual arrangement 

 is, however, that in which the anther is regularly four-celled ; particularly 

 in all the Ophrydece (fig. 209.), in which the pollen mass of each cell, 

 from causes unknown to me, becomes divided into many small ridge- 

 shaped pieces (fig. 210.), which are arranged around one large central 



209 



mass of that viscid substance already mentioned above. It not unfre- 

 quently happens that the cellular tissue appointed for the formation of 

 the pollen forms a secretion continued as a narrow process into the at- 

 tenuated base of the anther, sometimes also curving round forward from 

 the broad base, and then ascending into the substance of the valve, as 

 in Epidendrum cochleatum ; sometimes the connective of the anther is 

 continued forward over the stigma, as a pointed process, the rostellum ; 

 that cellular tissue sometimes extends up into this. All this cellular 

 tissue, however, subsequently commonly becomes changed into viscine, 

 and then it forms the tail-like appendage known as the caudicula (figs. 

 210. A. b. 211. f.) on the pollen mass. At the lower edge of the anther, 

 commonly glandularly thickened at this point (fig. 209. c.\ or of the ros- 

 tellum (fig. 211. <?.), are exhibited frequently at an early period, beneath 



SOD o rc Jii s militaris. The organs of generation of a bud about two-thirds long, after 

 the removal of the perianth. The germen is cut away, as also the lip, so that we can 

 see the edge and the entrance to the cavity of the spur of the lip, the inferior part of 

 which is also removed, a, Connective of the anther ; b 6, the two halves of the anther ; 

 c, the receptacle, still covered by the membrane (the bursicvla) ; d, the inferior part of 

 the anther-cell, wherein the caudiculus is situated ; e e, the two accessory stamens ; f, the 

 stigmatic surface. The arrow in the direction from x to y shows the direction of the 

 section which fig. 211. represents. 



2!0 Orchis Morio. A, Pollen mass from one half of the anther : a , the two lobes of 

 the mass, corresponding to the two loculi of one side ; b, the caudiculis ; c, the reti- 

 nacula. The lobes (a a) are divided into many wedge-shaped portions : one of them is 

 much magnified in B, and in itself again consists of groups of pollen granules, united 

 in fours. 



811 Orchis niilitafis. Longitudinal section through the central part of the organs of 



