I will presently describe; the other is still upon the plant,
and promises fair to attain maturity. In regard to the other four
flowers, I may remark that though similarly fertilised--part having
pollinia inserted, others merely attached--they all withered and dropped
off without the least swelling of the ovary. Can it be, then, that this
is really an [andro-monoecious] species?--part of the flowers male,
others truly hermaphrodite.

In making longitudinal sections of the fertilised ovary before
mentioned, I found the basal portion entirely destitute of ovules, their
place being substituted by transparent cellular ramification of the
placentae. As I traced the placentae upwards, the ovules appeared,
becoming gradually more abundant towards its apex. A transverse section
near the apex of the ovary, however, still exhibited a more than
ordinary placental development--i.e. [congenitally?] considered--each
end giving off two branches, which meet each other in the centre of the
ovary, the ovules being irregularly and sparingly disposed upon their
surfaces.

In regard to the mere question of fertilisation, then, I am perfectly
satisfied, but there are other points which require further elucidation.
Among these I may particularly refer to the contracted stigmatic
chamber, and the slight viscidity of its disk. The latter, however,
may be a consequence of uncongenial conditions--as you do not mention
particularly its examination by any author in its natural habitat. If
such be the case, the contracted stigmatic chamber will offer no real
difficulty, should the viscous exudations be only sufficient to render
the mouth adhesive. For, as I have already shown, the pollen-tubes may
be emitted in this condition, and effect fecundation without being in
actual contact with the stigmatic surface, as occurs pretty regularly in
the fertilisation of the Stapelias, for example. But, indeed, your
own discovery of the independent germinative capabilities of the
pollen-grains of certain Orchidaceae is sufficiently illustrative of
this.

I may also refer to the peculiar abnormal condition that many at least
of the ovaries present in a comparative examination of the placentae,
and of which I beg to suggest the following explanation, though it is as
yet founded on limited observations. In examining certain young ovaries
of A. Loddigesii, I found some of them filled with the transparent
membranous fringes of more or less distinctly cellular mat