Page:The Journal of Indian Botany, Volume III.djvu/13

NOTES ON INDIAN PLANT TERATOLOGY. whorl next above that to which the main flower belonged. This may have been effected by the proboscis of some insect. The flower with its bracteole was accidentally grafted on to the calyx-tube below the inner series of stamens of the main flower. At the same time the calyx-tube was ruptured between the stamens 2 and 10 of the inner, and 1 and 9 of the outer series, as indicated by the dotted lines. Einally, the calyx-lobes I and VI are in reality parts of the same initial lobe. This explains the normal position of the petal a and the stamen 1 with regard to the smaller part I, and of the stamens 9 and 10 with regard to the larger part VI. As the wound healed, the dis- placements indicated took place, causing the falsely spiral arrangement.

Various other abnormalities of the calyx of other flowers were observed. Thus, the flowers of terminal whorls often had two lobes partially united in various degrees. Also supernumerary calyx-lobes, smaller than the normal ones, were occasionally noted.

This Orchid abounds on the open grassy spots round Khandala railway station (G.I.P.) on the Western Ghats, in the beginning of