IN ORCHIDEiE AND ASCLEPIADE^E. 495 



rous ramuli, which spread themselves among the ovula, and 

 separate them into irregular groups. 



Hence, according to this author, a communication is 

 established between the anthera and the ovula, Avhich he 

 adds are impregnated through their surface, and not, as 

 he supposes to be the case in other families, through their 

 funiculus or point of attachment to the placenta. 

 ' The remarkable account of the stigma here quoted, 

 though coming from so distinguished and original an ob- 

 server, and one who had particularly studied this family of 

 plants, seems either to have been entirely overlooked, or 

 in some degree discredited by more recent writers, none of 

 whom, as far as I can find, have even alluded to it. And 

 I confess it entirely escaped me until after I had made the 

 observations which Avill be stated in the present essay, and 

 which confimn its accuracy as to the existence and course 

 of the parietal cords, though not as to their nature and 

 origin. 



In 1824 Professor Link^ expresses his opinion that the 

 rostellum of Richard is without doubt the true stigma. 



In 1829 Mr. Lindley," who for several years has par- 

 ticularly studied and has lately published part of a valuable 

 systematic work on Orchideous Plants, states that in this 

 family impregnation takes effect by absorption from the 

 pollen masses through their gland into the stigmatic 

 channel. 



In 1830, in his Introduction to the Natural System of 

 Botany, the same statement is repeated ; and in this [G93 

 work it also appears that he regards the glands to which 

 the pollen masses become attached in Ophryde^e as derived 

 from the stamen, and not belonging to the stigma,''' as in 

 1810 I had described them. It would even appear, from 

 a passage in his systematic work* published in the same 



1 Fhilos. Bot. p. 298. ^ Spiops. Brit. Flor. p. 356. 



3 " The pollen is not less curious. Now we have it in separate grains, as in 

 other plants, but cohering to a mesh-work of cellular tissue, which is collected 

 into a sort of central elastic strap; now the granules cohere in small angular 

 indefinite masses, and the central elastic strap becomes more apparent, has a 

 glandular extremity, which is often reclined in a peculiar pouch especially 

 destined for its protection." — Introdnct. to Nat. Si/st. of Bot. p. 263. 



■• Gen. and Sp. of Orchid. Part I, p. 3. 



