AND THEIR SYSTEMATICAL ARRANGEMENT. Ill 



return to their former shape. In some genera (as 

 Epipactis), the masses appear to be surrounded by 

 a thin membrane, perhaps belonging to the inner 

 surface of the cell. This they either lose in the 

 course of time, or it remains, and may then be 

 separated longitudinally into two or more coherent 

 parts ; which, when the elastic masses protrude 

 from the cells in the anthers, easily adhere to one 

 another or to different parts of the flower, by 

 means of the gland which is situated there, 

 and which appears at first dry, but afterwards be- 

 comes juicy. This is what Nauenburg and 

 Schkuhr call the emigration of the males, or 

 the infidelity of the males to their females.*) The 

 former author has observed this only in Orchis 

 bifolia, but I also found it in Orchis maculata, in 

 the beautiful Orchis habenaria, and in some species 

 of Epidendrum. 



Disa Corycium, and a few other genera, 

 have masses of pollen resembling those of Orchis j 

 but inThelymitra, Cranichis, Neottia, Diuris, Are- 

 thusa, &c. they do not separate so easily from the 



*Uster t's neue Annalen, No. 2. ScsntuHRbot. Handbuch,No. 2i. 



