IN ORCIIIDE^ AND ASCLEP1ADE7E. 493 



denominates that part, before the pollen masses are [889 

 attached to it, " stigma virgineum," it may be considered 

 as belonging to the same class. 



Ivoelreuter, the next writer in point of time, and whose 

 essay was published before Linneeus's query appeared, 

 states, in 1775,^ that the pollen masses, which he denomi- 

 nates naked antherse, impart their fecundating matter to 

 the surface of the cells of the true anthera, regarded by 

 him consequently as stigma, and that through this surface 

 it is absorbed and conveyed to the ovarium. 



In 17S7, Dr. Jonathan Stokes^ conjectures that in Or- 

 chidese, as well as in Asclepiadege, the male influence, or 

 principle of arrangement, as it is termed by John Hunter, 

 may be conveyed to the embryo without the intervention 

 of air : a repetition certainly of Linnaeus's conjecture, with 

 which, however, as it was not published till 1791, he could 

 not have been acquainted. 



In 1791, Batsch^ states that in Orchis and Ophrys, — 

 and his observation may be extended at least to all Saty- 

 rinffi or Ophrydege, — the only way in which the mass of 

 pollen can act on the ovarium, is by the retrogradation of 

 the impregnating power through the pedunculus or caudi- 

 cula of the pollen mass to the gland beneath it, which 

 he is disposed to refer rather to the stigma than to the 

 anthera. 



The late Professor Richard, in 1802,* expressly says that 

 fecundation is operated in Orchidege and Asclepiadese with- 

 out a change of place in the stamina ; his opinion therefore 

 must be considered identical with that of Batsch, and ex- 

 tended to the whole order. 



It might perhaps be inferred from the description which 

 I gave of Orchidese in a work published in 1810,^ that my 

 opinion respecting the mode of impregnation agreed with tero 

 that of Batsch and Richard, though it is not there actually 

 expressed, nor indeed very clearly in another publication 

 of nearly the same date,** in which I had adverted to this 



1 Act. Phi/s. Pulat. iii, p. .55. 2 jruh. Bot. Arrang. Snd ed. ii, p. 964. 

 3 Botanische Bemerk. i, p. 3. '' Diet, cle Botan. par Bdliari, ed. 2, p. 56. 



5 Troclr, Flor. Nov. Boll, i, p. 310. " linn. Hoc. Transact, x, p. 19, 



