GYNANDRIA. 39 



and may be considered as the queen of the European 

 Orchideae. It is among the scarcest of British plants^ 

 and most valued for its beauty and singularity. There 

 are five species^, but only this one of English growth. 



ORDER 3. 

 No British Plant of this Order, 



MEBOREA is a native of Guiane, a tree of mid- trian- 



ling size, with a stem of four or five inches in diame- ' 



ter^ to the height of tliree or four feet. It blossoms '''^'"mint*** 

 in January, and bears ripe fruit or seeds at the same 

 time. The flower is without a corolla, and is very 

 small, so that it requires to be greatly magnified to 

 know its structure. The Calyx is of one piece, divided 

 at the bottom into six green lobes. The leaves are 

 alternate, witli two little stipulae ^ at the base. 



<3 Besides the ordinary leaves of a plant, there are other parts 

 connected with them and the stem, denominated, by Linnaeus, 

 Fulcra, but which, in English, may be changed for the term 

 Appendants, and according to Dr. Smith's arrangement, are 

 enumerated in the following order. 



1. Stipula, a leafy appendage to the proper leaves, or to 

 their footstalks, as in the example Meborea, and the little 

 leaflets in the Styrax officinalis, Hedysarum. Class X. and XVII. 



2. Bractea, a floral leaf, or leafy appendage to the flower 

 or its stalk, as in the Holosteum, and Deonae muscipula. Class 

 III. and X. 



