46 GENERAL REVIEW OF THE ORCHIDEA'. 



audaciously unsupported, is derived mainly from facts and phenomena 

 hardly capable of appreciation exce})t by expert microscopists. 

 Teratology, however, aifords much more conspicuous evidence in the 

 same direction, and when cautiously utilised in combination with other 

 evidence yields a body of testimony to whose validity no exception can 

 as a whole be taken. The i)resence of six stamens in an orchid flower 

 may seem incredible to the ordinary observer, who sees therein only 

 one ; the others being potential, rudimentary, undeveloped, concealed. 

 But the monstrous flowers in which the botanist delights often 

 show plainly two or three, and not infrequently all six of the stamens, 

 the potential being then replaced by the actual. Is it not a perversion 

 of language to call a flower in which such a revelation occurs a 

 "monstrosity"? It would occupy too much space to enter into 

 details, but in my Veyetahle Teratology, pp. 383 — 388, a whole series 

 of such cases is given showing the occasional presence of two, three 

 up to six stamens and three styles, and a similar case of where all 

 six stamens were present in a form of Cyprippduim Sedenii is figured 

 by nie in the Ganleners' Chyunick\ * 



It should be added that these stamens are rarely perfect, generally 

 they are more or less petaloid and imperfect ; nevertheless, I once 

 saw a flower of Odontoglossum crlspum with all six stamens perfect, 

 and I experienced a satisfaction in its inspection as keen as that felt 

 by the decipherer of a cuneiform inscription I 



Before leaving the consideration of the column, it is Avell to point out 

 that it is sometimes found detached from tlie lip in those genera 

 where normally it is adiierent to it, and that it undergoes changes 

 in form and curvature in association with alterations in the perianth ; 

 thus in the peloric forms it is usually straight with the anther at 

 the summit as shown in Fig. 2. The significance of these changes 

 in connection with fertilisation can here only be mentioned. 



DoiMe-flowered Orchids. — Under the general term " double " as used 

 loosely by florists, several distinct conditions are implied. Flowers, 

 and those of orchids included, may become double by the mere 

 increase in number of their perianth segments without other material 

 change. I have seen this in our common wild orchids as well as 

 in Odontoglossum crispum and others under cultivation. 



A more common form of doubling, so far as orchids are concerned, 

 arises from the appearance of two or more of the cryptic stamens 

 above referred to in the guise of petals, just as happens in the case 

 of an ordinary double rose. Florists have not as yet sought to 

 perpetuate and develop these double forms, but as previously stated 

 there appears to be no insuperable obstacle to overcome if they were 



* XXVI. (1886), p. 596. As this sheet is passing through the press I have received a 

 Cypripedium from Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., with three stamens thus arranged '^ ^' 



