196 VANDEiE. Chap. VII. 



and are extended symmetrically. In G. saocatum the 

 left arm is bowed and held in front, as in G. triokn- 

 tatum, but rather lower down ; whilst the right arm 

 hangs downwards paralysed, with the hand turned a 

 little outwards. In every case notice will be given in 

 an admirable manner, when an insect visits the label- 

 lum, and the time has arrived for the ejection of the 

 pollinium, so that it may be transported to the female 

 plant. 



Gatasetum tridentatum is interesting under another 

 point of view. Botanists were astonished when Sir E. 

 Schomburgk* stated that he had seen three forms, 

 believed to constitute three distinct genera, namely, 

 Gatasetum tridentatum, Monachanthus viridis, and 

 Myanthus harhatus, all growing on the same plant. 

 Lindley remarked t that "such cases shake to the 

 foundation all our ideas of the stability of genera and 

 species." Sir E. Schomburgk affirms that he has seen 

 hundreds of plants of C. tridentatum in Essequibo with- 

 out ever finding one specimen with seeds ;| whereas 



* ' TraDsaolions of tlio Linnean Bristol. Lastly Dean Herbert 



Soc' vol. xvii. p. 522. Another informed me many years ago that 



acoonnt by Dr. Lindley appeared Gatasetum luridum flowered and 



in the 'Botanical Register,' fol. kept true for nine years in the 



1951, of a distinct species of My- Botanic Garden at York ; it then 



anthns and Monachanthus appear- threw up a scape of a Myanthus, 



ing on the same scape : he alludes which as we shall presently eee is 



also to other cases. Some of the an hermaphrodite, intermediate in 



flowers in these cases were in an in- form between the male and female, 



termediate condition, which is not M. Ducbartro has given a full hie- 



surprising, seeing that in dioecious torical account of the appearance 



plants we sometimes have a partial of those forms on the same plant, 



resumption of the characters of in 'Bull, de la Soc. Bot. de 



both sexes. Mr. Endgers of liiver- France,' vol. ix. 1862, p. 113. 

 hill informs me that he importi-d t The 'Vegetable Kingdom,' 



from Demerara a Myanthus, and 1853, p. 178. 

 that when it flowered a second % Brongniart states ('Bull, de 



time it was metamorphosed into la Soc. But. de France,' torn. ii. 



a Gatasetum. Dr. Carpenter 1855, p. 20) that M. Neumann, a 



(' Comparative Physiology,' 4th sliilful fertiliser of Orchids, could 



edit. p. 633) alludes to an ana- never succeed in fertilising Qata^ 



logons case which oucuircd at sutum. 



