JN OECIIIDEiE AND ASCLEPIADEiE. 501 



may here advert to the remarkable monstrosity in the 

 flowers of an Oplirys described and figured by M. His^ 

 upwards of two years before the appearance of my Prodro- 

 mus. This account I did not meet with till after that part 

 of the volume relating to Orchidese was printed ; and I 

 have here only to observe respecting it, that neither the 

 monstrosity itself, consisting of the conversion into stamina 

 of the three inner divisions of the perianthium, nor the 

 author's speculation founded on it, has any connection with 

 my opinion which relates to the processes of the column. 



M. His's paper, however, and the remarkable structure of 

 EpistepJdum of M. Kunth, have together given rise to a 

 third hypothesis, whose author, M. Achille Richard,' con- 

 siders an Orchideous flower as generally deprived of the 

 outer series of the peiianthium, which is present only in 

 Epistephium. He consequently regards the existing inner 

 series of perianthium, or that to which the labelkim belongs, 

 as formed of metamorphosed stamina. 



This hypothesis, although apparently sanctioned by the 

 structure of Scitaminese, I consider untenable ; the external 

 additional part in Epistephium, which I have examined, 

 appearing to me rather' analogous to the calyculus in some 

 Santalacese, in a few Proteacege, and perhaps to that of 

 Loranthacese. 



With reference to the support the hypothesis may C693 

 derive from the monstrosity described by M. His, I may add 

 that I have met with more than one case of similar con- 

 version into stamina of the inner series of the perianthium, 

 or at least of its two lateral divisions, with a manifest ten- 

 dency to the same change in the labellum : and in one of 

 these cases, namely Neottia pida, in addition to the con- 

 version of the two lateral divisions of the perianthium, the 

 lateral processes of the column were also completely deve- 

 loped. 



The next point examined was the composition of the 

 Stigma with the relation of its lobes or divisions to the other 

 parts of the flower, and especially to the supposed compo- 



* Journal de Fhydque, Ixv. (1807), p. 241. 



= Mm. de la Soc. d'Hist. Nat, de Paris, iv, p. 16. 



