Note 266 — Part III. ON THE FINAL CAUSES OF TRANSFORMATION.

In the province of botany such a case has already been made known by Fritz Müller (Botan. Zeitung, 1869, p. 226; 1870, p. 149). I may be here permitted to quote a passage from the letter in which Dr. Müller calls attention to this interesting discovery. “As a proof of the possibility that a reversion form can again become a persistent character in a species or in the allied form of a particular district, I may refer you to an Epidendrum of the island of Santa Catharina. In all Orchids (with the exception of Cypripedium) only one anther is developed; in very rare cases well-formed anthers appear as reversions among the aborted lateral anthers of the inner whorl. In the Epidendrum mentioned, these are however always present.”