ter, which,
from your description of the ovaries of luteola, appears to differ
simply in the greater development in the former species. Again, in
others I found small mammillary bodies, which appeared to be true
ovules, though I could not perfectly satisfy myself as to the existence
of the micropyle or nucleus. I unfortunately neglected to apply any
chemical test. The fact, however, that in certain of the examined
ovaries few or none of the latter bodies occurred--the placenta alone
being developed in an irregular membranous form, taken in conjunction
with the results of my experiments--before alluded to--on their
fertilisation, leads me to infer that two sexual conditions are
presented by the flowers of this plant. In short, that many of the
ovaries are now normally abortive, though Nature occasionally makes
futile efforts for their perfect development, in the production of
ovuloid bodies; these then I regard as the male flowers. The others that
are still capable of fertilisation, and likewise possessing male
organs, are hermaphrodite, and must, I think, from the results of your
comparative examinations, present a somewhat different condition; as it
can scarcely be supposed that ovules in the condition you describe could
ever be fertilised.

This is at least the most plausible explanation I can offer for the
different results in my experiments on the fertilisation of apparently
similar morphologically constructed flowers; others may, however, occur
to you. Here there is not, as in the Catasetum, any external change
visible in the respective unisexual and bisexual flowers. And yet it
would appear from your researches that the ovules of Acropera are in a
more highly atrophied condition than occurs in Catasetum, though, as
you likewise remark, M. Neumann has never succeeded in fertilising C.
tridentatum. If there be not, then, an arrangement of the reproductive
structures, such as I have indicated, how can the different results in
M. Neumann's experiments and mine be accounted for? However, as you
have examined many flowers of both A. luteola and Loddigesii, such a
difference in the ovulary or placental structures could scarcely
have escaped your observation. But, be this as it may, the--to me at
least--demonstrated fact still remains, that certain flowers of A.
Loddigesii are capable of fertilisation, and that, though there are good
grounds for supposing that important physiological changes are going on
in the sexual ph