208 VANDEiB. Chap. Vn. 



been bold enough to have surmised that the propaga- 

 tion of a species depended on so complex, so apparently 

 artificial, and yet so admirable an arrangement ? 



I have examined three other genera placed by 

 Lindley in the small sub-family of Catasetidae, namely, 

 Mormodes, Cycnoches and Cyrtopodium. The latter 

 plant was purchased by me under this name, and bore 

 a flower-stem about four feet in height with yellowish 

 bracts spotted with red ; but the flowers presented 

 none of the remarkable peculiarities of the three other 

 genera, with the exception that the anther was hinged 

 to a point projecting from the summit of the column, 

 as in Catasetum. 



Mormodes ignea. — To show how difficult it sometimes 

 is to understand the manner in which an Orchid is 

 fertilised, I may mention that I carefully examined 

 twelye flowers,* trying various experiments and re- 

 cording the results, before I could at all make out the 

 meaning and action of the several parts. It was plain 

 that the poUinia were ejected, as in Catasetum, but 

 how each part of the flower played its proper part I 

 could not even conjecture. I had given up the case 

 as hopeless, until summing up my observations, the 

 explanation presently to be given, and subsequently 

 proved by repeated experiments to be correct, suddenly 

 occurred to me. 



The flower presents an extraordinary appearance, 

 and its mechanism is even more curious than its ap- 

 pearance (fig. 32). The base of the column is bent 

 backwards, at right angles to the ovarium or footstalk, 



* I must expretiS my cordial two fine spikes, bearing an abun- 



thanka to Mr. Euoker, of West danoe of flowers, and for having 



Hill, Wandsworth, for having lent allowed mo to keep the plant for 



me a plant of this Mormodes with a considerable time. 



