350 MI?. G. BENTHAM 0"X OnCUTBEJE. 



the anther, to which there is no exception, nor are any interme- 

 diate forms known connecting it with other tribes. The anther, 

 erect above the rostellum or turned back away from it, is adnate 

 to the top of the column ; the anther-case or connectivum per- 

 fectly continuous with the clinandrium, not showing any line of 

 demarcation between the two, except, perhaps, a very faint one in 

 two or three species ; the two raised adnate cells are quite distinct, 

 parallel or divergent, and tapering at the base, so as to appear in 

 a reversed position ; they vary from very short to much prolonged 

 at the base, when their tapering ends are adnate to or applied 

 upon the apex of the column, and thence frequently on to the 

 lobes of the rostellum, with their back and not their dehiscent 

 fronts regarding the rostellum. The pollen is usually coarsely 

 granular, rarely fine and almost mealy, forming in each cell one 

 or rarely two masses, produced into the tapering base of each cell 

 in a smooth caudicle, which at or beyond or sometimes shortly 

 within the end of the cell becomes affixed to a gland, in most 

 cases, and perhaps always, detached from the rostellum. In the 

 three preceding tribes it is the dehiscent face of the anther-cells 

 and not their backs which is incumbent on or applied against the 

 rostellum, and the pollen-masses taper into points or caudicles at 

 the upper, not the lower, end, or, when obtuse, become affixed to 

 the gland at various points on their surface, never through a basal 

 caudicle. The only approach in the position of the anther to that 

 characterizing the Ophrydea? observable in any other tribe is in the 

 few genera of the subtribe Microstylea?, where the anther is sessile 

 on its back diverging from the rostellum, and is sometimes per- 

 sistent, but always perfectly distinct from the top of the column, 

 never continuous with it. These differences between the anther 

 of Ophrydea? and that of the other tribes may be said to be that 

 it is adnate or innate in the former, versatile in the latter. In 

 general habit the Ophrydere are all terrestrial, never pseudo- 

 bulbous ; the rhizome most frequently forms annually a distinct 

 tuber, destined to produce the next year's stem, and placed by 

 the side of or at some distance from the old one, which sub- 

 sequently shrivels up and disappears. In a few species, however, 

 the rhizome shortly creeps with rather fleshy fibres, as in many 

 Neottiea?. The stem is simple, usually but not quite always leafy 

 near the base or in its whole length, bears a simple terminal 

 raceme or spike, and dies down after ripening its seed. By far 

 the greater number of species are extratropical, northern in 



