In _Orchidaceae_ entire absence of the labellum, frequently without any other perceptible change, is of common occurrence. The writer has seen numerous specimens of the kind in _Ophrys apifera_ and _O. aranifera_; also in _Dendrobium nobile_, _AErides odoratum_, _Cypripedium villosum_, _Listera ovata_, &c. Morren[467] mentions analogous deficiencies in _Zygopetalum maxillare_, _Calanthe_ sp., and _Cattleya Forbesii_. In most of these there was also a fusion of the two lower sepals, which were so twisted out of place as to occupy the situation usually held by the labellum. At the same time the column was partially atrophied. To this deficiency of the lip the author just quoted proposed to apply the term acheilary, [Greek: a-cheilarion]. Mr. Moggridge has communicated to the author an account of certain flowers of _Ophrys aranifera_, in which the petals were deficient, sometimes completely, at other times one or two only were present. =Meiophylly of the androecium.=--Suppression of one or more stamens, independently of like defects in other whorls, is not uncommon, even as a normal occurrence, _e.g._ in _Carlemannia_, where the flower, though regular, has only two stamens, and other similar deficiencies are common in Dilleniads. Seringe relates the occurrence of suppression of some of the stamens in _Diplotaxis tenuifolia_,[468] St. Hilaire in _Cardamine hirsuta_, others in _C. sylvatica_. In _Caryophyllaceae_ suppression of one or more stamens has been observed in _Mollugo cerviana_, _Arenaria tetraquetra_, _Cerastium_, &c.[469] Among violets the writer has observed numerous flowers in which two or three stamens were suppressed. Chatin[470] alludes to a similar reduction in _Tropaeolum_, while in flowers that are usually didynamous absence of two or more of the stamens is not unfrequent, _e.g._ in _Antirrhinum_, _Digitalis_, while in a flower of _Catalpa_ a solitary perfect stamen, and a complete absence of the sterile ones usually present, have been observed. This might have been anticipated from the frequent deficiencies in the staminal whorl in these plants under what are considered to be normal conditions. Reduction of the staminal whorl is also not unfrequent in _Trifolium repens_ and _T. hybridum_, and has been seen in _Delphinium_, &c.[471] =Meiophylly of the gynoecium.=--Numerical inequality in the case of the pistil, as compared with the other whorls of the flower, is of such common occurrence, under ordinary circumstances, that in some text-books it is looked on as the normal condition, and a flower which is isomerous in the outer whorls is by some writers not considered numerically irregular if the number of the carpels does not coincide with that of the other organs.