IN orchidejE and asclepiade^. 499 



I now proceed to state, in some cases briefly, in others 

 at greater length, the results of this investigation. 



The first question that occupied me was, the relation 

 which the lateral and generally rudimentary stamina bear [696 

 to the other parts of the flower. 



Into this subject I had in part entered in my Ob- 

 servations on Apostasia, published by Dr. Wallich in his 

 ' Plantse Asiaticse Rariores,^^ and had then considered it 

 probable that in all cases these Stamina, in whatever state 

 of development they were found, belonged to a different 

 series from the middle and usually fertile stamen ; in other 

 words, were placed opposite to the two lateral divisions of the 

 inner series of the perianthium. In 1810, however, when 

 I first advanced my hypothesis of the true nature of these 

 processes of the column, I supposed, though the opinion 

 was not then expressed, that they formed the complement 

 of the outer series of stamina ; a view which has been since 

 very generally adopted, especially by Dr. Von Martius, who 

 has given it in a stenographic formula, and by Mr. Lindley, 

 who has exhibited the relative position of parts in this family 

 in a diagram.^ A careful examination of the structure of the 

 column in various tribes of the order, chiefly by means of 

 transverse sections, has fully confirmed the opinion I enter- 

 tained when treating of Apostasia ; and more particularly 

 established the fact in Cypripedium, in which these lateral 

 stamina are perfectly developed. 



On the hypothesis of rudimentary stamina I may remark, 

 that it presented itself to me some time before the publi- 

 cation of the Prodromus Horse Novae HoUandiae ; and my 

 belief is, that until the appearance of that work this view 

 had not been taken by any other observer in England. Mr. 

 Bauer at least, in a recent conversation on the subject, 

 readily admitted, with his usual candour, that although 

 acquainted with a case of accidental development, the gene- 

 ral view had not occurred to him until stated by me. 



In my mind it arose from contrasting the structure of [cw 

 Cypripedium with those genera of New Holland Orchideae 

 — Diuris, Prasophyllum, and others — in which the lateral 

 > Vol. i, p, 74. = Introduce to Nat. Syst. p. 2C4. 



