THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 51 



occasion such flowers in a wild state, and indeed the true character 

 of the organs which are liable to change, need further investigation. 

 Professor Sachs remarks that "the morphological homology of the 

 separate parts of the ordinary stamens is not yet altogether deter- 

 mined, more precise investigations into the history of development 

 being still wanted in that direction. " Some writers consider the two 

 anther-lobes as the swollen lateral halves of the lamina of the stamen, 

 and their loculi as mere excavations in the tissue of the leaf ; but 

 this according to the same eminent writer, cannot be the case, as in 

 the conversion of stamens into petals, " the anterior and posterior 

 loculi do not stand opposite each other, which would be the case if one 

 belonged to the upper, the other to the under side of the staminal 

 leaf." However this may be, it may be inferred that flowers in a 

 wild state arc exposed ac(;idental]y to the same causes which are said 

 to influence them under cultivation, and that the stamens and pistils 

 may be affected with hybridization through the agency of bees and 

 other insects, without the intervention of art ; whilst nature herself 

 may bring about atmospheric changes favourable to the excessive 

 development of petals. If in the early days of the colony, double 

 flowers did not exist in a wild state, and if long after the foundation 

 of the settlement, Bpacris purpiirascens was the only species known 

 to have such, (the same having been found on Elizabeth Farm, near 

 Parramatta), it may be concluded that the introduction of foreign 

 bees and the increasing manure from cattle, have tended to augment 

 the number of such cases. So far as observation has yet extended, 

 I am not aware that any double flowers have been noticed beyond 

 the settled districts, and if this be really the case, it seems to show 

 that the writer to whom I have referred as stating that there were 

 no such flowers in a wild state in Australia, was not so far wrong 

 as we might suppose from more recent observations. 



Mr. C. French stated that he had collected double flowers of Epacris 

 impressa, of both white and red varieties, the former at Cheltenham, 

 and the latter on Arthur's Seat, near Dromana. He had also found 

 double flowers of Sprengelia incarnata by the Plenty River, and of 

 Styphelia (Astroloma) humifusa, near Mt. Martha, 



REMARKS ON THE ORCHIDACEOUS GENUS, 

 LATOURIA, 



By Baron von Mueller, K.C.M.G., M.D., Ph.D., F.R.S. 



As long ago as 1848, Prof. Blunie of Leyden established the genus 

 Latouria in the fourth volume of his " Rumphia" mainly from a 



