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NOTE ON APPAEENT APOGAMY IN PTEBYGODIUM 
NEWDIGATAE. 
By a. V. DuTHiE. 
(Read June 16, 1915.) 
(Plates XLII, XLIII.) 
Fterygodium. Newdigatae is represented by the normal open-flowered 
species and a cleistogamous variety, which differs greatly from the type in 
perianth and column. The forms which were regarded by Dr. Bolus as 
constituting the normal species are represented by three individuals now in 
the Bolus Herbarium and one in the Grovernment Herbarium, Cape Town. 
These were collected by Miss Newdigate near Eorest Hill, in the Knysna 
district, in 1894. The cleistogamous form occurs in some abundance, 
growing among grass and bush in sandy and stony localities in the districts 
of G-eorge, Knysna, Humansdorp, and Albany ; but, so far as I am aware, 
no further specimens of the open-flowered form have been found of late 
years in spite of careful search. 
Instances of cleistogamy, though rare, are not wanting among Orchids, 
but the occurrence of strikingly distinct chasmogamous and cleistogamous 
forms seems unknown in the case of any other Orchid species. 
Dr. Bolus, in his monograph on Orchids of South Africa, concludes his 
description of the cleistogamous form as follows : " No open or punctured 
flower has, as yet, been observed ; no pollen has in any case been found upon 
the stigma ; yet the ovaries have swollen, producing abundance of seed, and 
Dr. Schoenland, who examined them, found the seeds to contain a perfect 
embryo. The question remains, How is the fertilisation effected ? This, 
with some other points in respect of this remarkable species, must await for 
its elucidation a supply of fresh material, which Dr. Schoenland, who has 
kindly assisted me in this matter, hopes to obtain during the ensuing season." 
Eolfe, in his account of the species in Flora Capensis observes : " The 
column is very variable in the normal cleistogamic form, three conditions 
being figured by Bolus. Schlechter makes it a species, under the name of 
Pterygodium cleistogamum, but it is clearly only a peloriate, self-fertilising 
form of Pterygodium Newdigatae.^' 
As much interest attaches to the method of reproduction and mode of 
fertilisation in this Orchid, I undertook an investigation into these processes. 
