M. His observed, several years in succession, some flowers of a species of Ophrys with three sepals, no lateral petals, one lip, and three perfect stamens. In this case probably the two supernumerary stamens were petals which had assumed an anther-like character.
Wydler describes a flower of Ophrys aranifera in which one outer and two inner stamens were present.[444] I have myself met with three such flowers in the same species. The stamens present were A 1, a 1, a 2.
Dr. J. E. Gray exhibited at the Botanical Society of London, in August, 1843, a specimen of Ophrys apifera with a triandrous column, the supernumerary anthers belonging, apparently, to the inner whorl.
In his 'Catalogue of the Plants of South Kent,' p. 56, tab. iv, f. 16, the Rev. G. E. Smith describes and figures a flower of O. aranifera with a triandrous column, seemingly of the same kind as that spoken of by Dr. Gray.
Mr. Moggridge met with a triandrous flower in the same species, and refers the appearance to "a fusion of two flowers, accompanied by suppression and modification."[445] As, however, no details are given in support of this opinion, it may be conjectured that the two additional stamens were members of the inner whorl a 1, a 2, and thus the conformation would be the same as in the flowers just mentioned. The figures given by Mr. Moggridge bear out this latter view, while they lend no support to the hypothesis advanced by him. Nevertheless, no decided opinion can be pronounced by those who have not had the opportunity of examining the flowers in question.
Alphonse de Candolle[446] figures a flower of Maxillaria in exactly the same condition, so far as the stamens are concerned, as in the Ophrys flowers just mentioned. It is curious to observe that in many of these cases the two lateral petals are suppressed.
Von Martius mentions the occurrence of three anthers (naturaliter conformatæ) in Orchis morio.[447] Richard, as cited by Moquin-Tandon, Lindley, and others, describes and figures a peloria of Orchis latifolia with regular triandrous flowers.[448]
The writer has examined, in the Royal Gardens at Kew, a flower of Cattleya crispa in which were three stamens, the central one normal; the two lateral ones, belonging probably to the inner whorl, were in appearance like the lateral petals, and one of them was adherent to the central perfect column. Duchartre[449] mentions a flower of Cattleya Forbesii in which there were two labella in addition to the ordinary one, the column being in its normal condition. From the analogy of other cases it would appear as if the additional labella in this instance were the representatives of two stamens of the outer whorl. Beer likewise has put on record the existence of a triandrous Cattleya.[450]
A specimen of Catasetum eburneum forwarded by Mr. Wilson Saunders was normal so far as the sepals and two lateral petals were concerned, but the anterior petal or labellum was flat and in form quite like the two lateral ones; the column was normal and in the situation of the two anterior stamens of the outer series A 2, A 3, were two labella of the usual form (fig. 156, p. 291). Perhaps the Oncidium represented at p. 68, fig. 29, may also be explained on the supposition that the two lateral lobes of the labellum in this flower were the representatives of stamens.
In Fig. 193 is shown the arrangement of parts in a flower of Ophrys aranifera. Here there were three sepals, two lateral petals, one of which was adherent to the side of the column; the central labellum was seemingly deficient, but there were two pseudo-labella placed laterally in the position of the two antero-lateral stamens of the outer series (A 2, A 3). Within these was another perfect stamen occupying the position of the anterior stamen of the inner series (a 3). In another flower of the same species, gathered at the same time (fig. 194), there were three sepals not at all different from those of the normal flower. The three petals next in succession were also, in form and position, in their ordinary state. In colour, however, the two upper lateral petals differed from what is customary, in having the same purplish-brown tint which characterises the lip. Within these petals, at the upper part of the flower, there was the ordinary column, and at the opposite side, alternating with the petals before mentioned, two additional lip-like petals, one provided with a half-anther containing a single perfectly formed pollen-mass (A 2, A 3). It is, perhaps, worthy of notice that the arrangement of the coloured spots on the true labellum, and that on the adventitious lips, replacing the two lower of the outer stamens, were not of a similar character. The supernumerary lips had the π-shaped marking which is so common in this species, while the true lip was, as to its spots, much more like O. apifera. Alternating with this last whorl were three columns, all apparently perfectly formed and differing only from the ordinary one in their smaller size and corresponding to a 1, a 2, a 3. The ovary in this flower was two-celled, with four parietal placentas, thus giving an appearance as though there had been a fusion of two or more flowers associated with suppression and other changes. The position of the supernumerary organs and the absence of any positive sign of fusion in the bracts or other part of the flower, seemed, however, to negative the idea of fusion.[451]