GYNANDRIA MONANDRIA and 

 DIANDRIA. 



The first and second Orders of this Class are perfectly na- 

 tural, without any exception, or exclusion, comprehend- 

 ing the whole natural order of the Orc/iis tribe, and, as 

 far as our knowledge at present extends, no other })lant 

 whatever. The cells of the anther being, in several in- 

 stances, more or less distant from each^odier, Linna?us 

 understood the whole tribe as diandrous ; but Swartz 

 and others have corrected this error, proved to be such 

 by the near relations of these plants the Scitaminea\ 

 the cells of whose anther are, in some instances, still 

 more widely separated ; in others full as decidedly united, 

 so as to constitute a single anther. The analogy of other 

 parts of the Jio-doer in that fine exotic order, with which 

 Mr. Roscoe alone may be said to have made botanists 

 familiar, will, if I mistake not, render us better ac- 

 quainted with the same parts in the beautiful and favour- 

 ite family of Orchidecc. I shall, in the fii'st place, give 

 its characters according to the ideas I have been in- 

 duced to adopt from Nature herself, as well as from a 

 careful study of the publications of Linnaeus and Haller, 

 compared widi the transcendent improvements of Dr. 

 Swartz and Mr. R. Brown. 



Orchidece. Linn. 7. Juss. 21. Br. Pr. 309. See Grammar, 81 — 

 84./. 70—72, 77, 78. 



Flowers all complete and perfect. Emhrijo simple, or, as it 

 is usually expressed, monocotyledonous. 



Calyx superior, of 3 leaves, either spreading or converging, 

 sometimes coloured ; the uppermost often vaulted ; rare- 

 ly extended at the base; 2 lateral ones opposite, e(|Uiil ; 

 sometimes combined laterally, or dilated, or elongated, 

 at the lower part ; all either deciduous, or, more rarelv, 

 permanent. 



Corolla likewise of 3 parts. Petals 2, interior, between the 

 lateral and uppermost calyx- leaves, less than either, 

 and almost always of a difl'erent substance and colour, 

 ascending, or sometimes converging. Xectari/ a lij), in 

 the same circle with tlic })etals, j)rojecting, or dependent, 

 between the lateral calyx-leaves in front, oilcn extended 

 behind, bevond the calyx, in the form of one hollow 



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