: 
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with the stigma. This opinion is now, we Velieve, con- 
signed to the catalogue of vulgar errors. A nearer view 
and a more philosophical research have demonstrated the 
probability of a clandestine fertilization, previous to the 
opening of the flower and removal of the pollen-masses ; at 
a period when these bodies are endued with a very different 
_ hature and substance from those they are found with at the 
“migratory stage. A theory, which, as the result of more 
accurate investigation and sounder reasoning, may safely 
replace that which has been found groundless, at least until 
itself shall have been refuted in turn, or modified by future 
observation. The original notion, we suspect, had no bet- 
ter foundation than the fact of the inert and exhausted 
residua of the pollen (after projection by an elastic dehis- 
cence of the anther) having been frequently observed to 
cling in masses of a determinate form to the neighbouring 
stigma, where they are retained (probably for the use of 
bees or of some other insects) by a viscid moisture secreted 
at this period from the surface of that organ. ‘ie a 
_ The waxen or horny state in which the pollen-masses. 
are found in a great proportion of this family, is never that 
of their pristine consistence, but a consistence induced after 
parting with their fertilizing principle, and indicatory of 
exhaustion. For this reason, when these concrements en- 
ter into the definitions of the secretions of Orchidew by Mr. 
Brown, we find them designated “ demim cereacea” (finally 
waxen). And in this state only, from their permanence, 
greater evidence, and easier accessibility, could they have 
been adopted for characteristic marks. Previous to that 
period, besides the continual change both in form and con: 
sistence which is more or less in progress, the precise but 
fugitive moment at which these bodies might be deemed 
perfect, that is, mature and still pregnant with the ferti- 
lizing principle, could not have been easily seized for prac- 
tical discrimination, even if such point of their existence 
was held a truer and safer ground of distinction. 
_ It is by the singular habit of the pollen that Orchidee 
_ are distinguished among Monocotyledons, as the Asclepiadee: 
are by one nearly similar among Dicotyledons, 
In the Asclepiadeous family the anthers are five, all with 
a pollen concreting into a determinate number of masses, _ 
which, on issuing from the mould or case of the anther, at- 
