THE ORCHID REVIEW. 293 
variations and marked characteristics of the leaves and flowers of this group 
may be due in part to its method of nutrition. Although not generally 
known, the variations of the underground organs are almost as great as those 
of the aérial parts. Thus the Coral-roots (Corallorhizas) have lost their 
roots entirely, and the underground coralloid formations which give them 
their name are really short branches serving the purpose of roots, and are 
inhabited by a fungus. Some of the near relatives of the Coral-roots show 
a tendency to construct underground branches, especially Aplectrum and 
Calypso. 
‘‘ If one digs up a specimen of Aplectrum he will find an old corm of last 
year’s growth connected by an offset an inch long with a young corm which 
sends up a leaf in the autumn. The fungus which lives in the root of the 
old corm travels through this offset and down into the new roots formed at 
its tip when it begins to enlarge to make the young corm. Now, if the 
growth of the offset should be disturbed, or if it should not be properly 
nourished from the old corm, it develops all of the latent buds along its 
sides into coralloid branches, with hairs through which the fungus sends 
tubes out into the soil and brings in a supply of material. 
““The leaves which spring from offsets developed in this manner are 
much narrower than the ordinary forms. The clumps of Aplectrum which 
grow alongside a decaying log, or which have found a footing in the remains 
of one, are very apt to make these coralloid formations, or they may be 
produced at the will of the experimenter, if old corms are separated trom 
the plant and made to germinate the latent buds.” 
‘ About two hundred specimens of this plant are now growing in asingle 
plantation in the New York Botanical Gardens, and a number have the 
narrow leaves indicative of the curious underground stem or branches of 
the offsets.” 
MEGACLINIUM BUFO. 
Let the reader imagine a green snake to be pressed flat like a dried 
flower, and then to have a row of toads, or some such speckled reptiles, 
drawn up along the middle in single file, their backs set up, their fore legs 
sprawling right and left, and their mouths wide open, with a large purple 
tongue wagging about convulsively, and a pretty considerable approach will 
be gained to an idea of this strange plant, which, if Pythagoras had but 
known of it, would have rendered all arguments about the transmigration 
of souls superfluous.—Lindl. Bot. Reg., 1841, Misc., p. 42. 
It is very curious that nothing further should be known of this 
remarkable Sierra Leone species since it flowered with Messrs. Loddiges 
at this period. 
