IN ORCHlDEiE AND ASCLEPIADEjE. 491 



first entertained, but not published, by Bernard de Jussieu) -^ 

 and lie correctly marks the relation both of the stamen and 

 placentae of the ovarium to the divisions of the peri- 

 anthium. 



In 1777^ Curtis, in the Flora Londinensis in his figure 

 and account of Op/nys apifera, correctly delineates and 

 describes the pollen masses, called by him antherae, the \m 

 glands at their base inclosed in distinct cucuUi or bursiculse, 

 and the stigma, with the surface of which he represents 

 the masses as coming in contact. 



In his second volume, the two lateral adnate lobes of 

 the stigma, and the auriculae of the column of Orchis mas- 

 cula, are distinctly shown ; and these auriculae, now gene- 

 rally denominated rudimentary stamina, are also delineated 

 in some other species of Orchis afterwards figured in the 

 same work. 



In 1793, Christian Konrad SprengeP asserts that the 

 pollen masses are applied directly to the secreting or viscid 

 surface on the front of the column, in other words to the 

 stigma, and that insects are generally the agents in this 

 operation. 



In 1799, J. Iv. Wachter^ supports the same opinion, as 

 far as regards the necessity of direct contact of the pollen 

 masses with the female organ ; and this observer was the 

 first who succeeded in artificially impregnating an Or- 

 chideous plant, by applying the pollen to the stigma of 

 Habenaria bifolia. 



In 1799 also, or beginning of 1800, Schkuhr* takes the 

 same view of the subject, and states that the pollen masses, 

 which resist the action of common moisture, are readily 

 dissolved by the viscid fiuid of the stigma. 



In 1800 Swartz,^ in adopting the same opinion, notices 

 various ways in which the application of the pollen may 

 be eff'ected in the different tribes of this family, repeats 

 the statement of Schkuhr on the solvent power of the 

 stigma, and in Bletia TanlcervillicB describes ducts 



o' 



1 Jms. gen. -pi. p. 06. 2 Eatd. Geheim. p. 401. 



3 Romer, Archio. ii, p. 209. * Handbuch iii, p. 192. 



6 Act. Holm. 1800, p, 134. 



