Fig. 193.—Diagram showing the arrangement of parts in a malformed flower of Ophrys aranifera ([see p. 384]).
Fig. 194.—Malformed flower of Ophrys aranifera with two supernumerary lips and three additional stamens.
A similar illustration, for a knowledge of which the writer is indebted to the kindness of Professor Asa Gray and Mr. Darwin, occurred in some specimens of Pogonia ophioglossoides collected by Dr. J. H. Paine in a bog near Utica, New York. It will be seen from the following description that these flowers presented an almost precisely similar condition to those of the Ophrys aranifera just mentioned. "The peculiarities of these flowers," writes Professor Gray, "are that they have three labella, and that the column is resolved into small petaloid organs. The blossom is normal as to the proper perianth, except that the labellum is unusually papillose, bearded almost to the base. The points of interest are, first, that the two accessory labella are just in the position of the two suppressed stamens of the outer series, viz. of a2 and a3, as represented in the diagram, fig. 192; and there is a small petaloid body on the other side of the flower, answering to the other stamen, a1. Secondly, in one of the blossoms, and less distinctly in another, two lateral stamens of the inner series (a1 and a2) are represented each by a slender naked filament. There are remaining petaloid bodies enough to answer for the third stamen of the inner series and for the stigmas, but their order is not well to be made out in the dried specimens." It may here be mentioned that Isochilus is normally triandrous.
A tetrandrous flower of Cypripedium has also been recorded.
In Isochilus, according to Cruger, there are often five stamens, and there are several, besides those already mentioned, in which six more or less perfect stamens have been seen—of these the following may be taken as illustrations. A hexandrous flower of Orchis militaris has been recorded by Kirschleger,[452] and in the accompanying diagram (fig. 195), from Cramer,[453] of a monstrous flower of Orchis mascula, there is one perfect stamen of the outer row and two lip-like stamens of the same series, while the inner verticil comprises one perfect and two abortive stamens.