44 Mr. Lindley's RemarJcs upon ihe 



presumed to contain, that its botany may be considered almost 

 entirely unknown. It is true, indeed, that a very considerable 

 addition to the published lists of Chilian plants might be made 

 from an examination of certain private herbaria; but as far as 

 the scientific world in general is concerned, the statement 

 above made is strictly accurate. 



From the copious materials relating to the vegetation of 

 Chile which exist in this country, much information of the 

 most important nature is to be derived ; but from no source 

 so extensively, perhaps, as from the collections formed for the 

 Horticultural Society by Mr. James M'^Rae. From these I 

 have selected the highly curious tribe of Orchideous plants as 

 the subject of the following remarks. 



The distribution of Orchidese w4th respect to the surface of 

 the globe, is one which has hitherto scarcely occupied the 

 attention of geographical botanists; nor can our notions respect- 

 ing it, for some time to come, be expected to acquire any con- 

 siderable degree of accuracy. So much difficulty exists in 

 preserving dried specimens of this tribe of plants, and in the 

 determination of them when preserved, that, with the exception 

 of Europe and North America, we can form no conception of 

 the proportion that they bear to the Flora of the world, or of 

 the relation which the forms of one Flora bear to those of 

 another. 



A few striking facts appear, however, to be ascertained, 

 which may serve as the basis of future observations ; and which 

 are well worthy of consideration, as they seem to indicate 

 between the minuter parts of the structure of Orchidese, and 

 their general economy, a close connexion which is not at present 

 susceptible of explanation. 



In all extra-tropical countries, where the species grow on the 

 earth among grassy herbage, and are supported by fleshy or 

 fasciculated roots, the greatest number belongs to genera with 

 decompound pollen-masses, or, more correctly speaking, with 

 their pollen in a very incomplete state of cohesion ; — those with 

 solid pollen masses and glandular appendages either not exist- 

 ing at all, as in Europe and the North of Asia, or constituting 

 not more than a thirteenth part of the whole, as in North Ame- 

 rica, and, perhaps, the Cape of Good Hope ; and those with 



