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In illustration of the singular structure of this genus, it may be interesting to quot e Professor L i x o LJiv's
observations iu tlie " Botiinical Register," under the head of C. aurea (on which the genus was founded),
but which are e(|ually applicable to the more recent species :—•
" Tlie poll en-mosses consist of tivo yellow plntes placed side by side iii tlie bed of tlie antlier, miited at the back,
and slightly notched on tlie outer edge, so that it is, in reality, four-lobed, the lobes being extiemely unequal; each lobe
has a, thickened margin, and, rising up, overlies and conceals four other lobes of a thicker texture and smaller size, two of
which arise from the back and t>vo from the front of the inner edge of the principal lobes of the plates above describetl.
This remarkable structure n\ay be theoretically described as being equivalent to eight polien-niosses, of which the straps
of connection, such as exist in all Epideiidretc, are run together into two plates, from the ex-pansion of the edges of which
the pollen-raosses appear to spring."—(_Sub. i. 1937, Bot. Reg. 1810.)
Crosses simihir to tlie one inti-ocluced below are of frequent occurrence in various districts of Mexico
nnd Guatemala,
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