ME. G. BENTI1AM ON OECIIIDEJJ. 281 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 

 Plate VII. 

 Fig. 1. Kitchingia gracilipes, Baker. 



2. Section of the corolla, to show stamens and their insertion, nat. size. 



3. The carpels, also of natural size. 



Plate VIII. 

 Fig. 1. Bhodocodon madagascariensis, Baker. 



2. A section of the perianth, to show nerving and proportion of segments to 



tube, enlarged. 



3. A section of the perianth, to show the stamens and their insertion, also 



enlarged. 



4. The pistil, magnified. 



5. The lower bract, also enlarged. 



Notes on Orehideae. By Geoege Ben4?ham, F.K.S. 



[Read January 20, 1881.] 



The wonderful variety in the forms of tropical Orchidea?, and 

 the singular complications of their fertilizing-apparatus, early 

 caught the attention of several of the most eminent botanists ; 

 and in the latter portion of last century and the first decades of 

 the present one we had already special treatises on them from 

 Swartz, the two Bichards (father and son), Dupetit-Thouars, 

 Bobert Brown, Blume, and others. The sagacious observations 

 of Brown, backed by the splendid drawings of Bauer, iuduced 

 Lindley to devote himself to the study of the Order, of which 

 he became the great master. At the same time one of the re- 

 sults of the labours of the Horticultural Society was the general 

 spread of a taste for the cultivation of tropical plants amongst 

 the wealthy, and amongst these Orehideae soon took a prominent 

 place. Already, in the celebrated stoves of Loddiges of Hackney, 

 a considerable number were successfully grown, and they be^an 

 to appear in the then newly established Horticultural exhibitions. 

 It was at one of these that the Duke of Devonshire, President 

 of the Horticultural Society, was so struck with the singularity 

 of the Oncidium Papilio, that he determined to form a special 

 collection of the Order in the stoves at Chatsworth. This set 



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