and are extended symmetrically. In C. saccatum the left arm is bowed and held in front, as in C. tridentatum, 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 labellum, and the time has arrived for the ejection of the pollinium, so that it may be transported to the female plant.
Catasetum tridentatum is interesting under another point of view. Botanists were astonished when Sir R. Schomburgk[1] stated that he had seen three forms, believed to constitute three distinct genera, namely, Catasetum tridentatum, Monachanthus viridis, and Myanthus barbatus, all growing on the same plant. Lindley remarked[2] that "such cases shake to the foundation all our ideas of the stability of genera and species." Sir R. Schomburgk affirms that he has seen hundreds of plants of C. tridentatum in Essequibo without ever finding one specimen with seeds;[3] whereas
- ↑ 'Transactions of the Linnean Soc.' vol. xvii. p. 522. Another account by Dr. Lindley appeared in the 'Botanical Register,' fol. 1951, of a distinct species of Myanthus and Monachanthus appearing on the same scape: he alludes also to other cases. Some of the flowers in these cases were in an intermediate condition, which is not surprising, seeing that in diœcious plants we sometimes have a partial resumption of the characters of both sexes. Mr. Endgers of Riverhill informs me that he imported from Demerara a Myanthus, and that when it flowered a second time it was metamorphosed into a Catasetum. Dr. Carpenter ('Comparative Physiology,' 4th edit. p. 633) alludes to an analogous case which occurred at Bristol. Lastly Dean Herbert informed me many years ago that Catasetum luridum flowered and kept true for nine years in the Botanic Garden at York; it then threw up a scape of a Myanthus, which as we shall presently see is hermaphrodite, intermediate in form between the male and female. M. Duchartre has given a full historical account of the appearance of those forms on the same plant, in 'Bull. de la Soc. Bot. de France,' vol. ix. 1862, p. 113.
- ↑ The 'Vegetable Kingdom,' 1853, p. 178.
- ↑ Brongniart states ('Bull. de la Soc. Bot. de France,' tom. ii. 1855, p. 20) that M. Neumann, a skilful fertiliser of Orchids, could never succeed in fertilising Catasetum.
