Orciiidales.] 



ORCHIDACEvE. 



173 



Order LII. ORCHIDACE^.— Orchids. 



Orchides, Jttss. Gen. «4. (17S9).— Orchideae, R. Brown Prodi: 30!). ri810) ; Rich, in Mem. Mtis. 4. 23. 

 (1818); Bauer, Francis, and Lindley, Illustrations of Orchidaceous Plants ; Id. Genera and Species 

 ofOrch. (1830) R. Brown Observations on the Sejcual Or//ans, <^c. of Orchidece and Asclepiadece 

 (1831) ; Endl. Gen. Ixvi.; Meisner, Gen. p. 367. — Vanillacese, Ed.pr. ccxliv. 



Diagnosis. — Orchidal Endogens, with irregular gynandro as floioers and parietal placentce. 



Herbaceous plants or shrubs, always perennial, occurring all over the world, except in 



the very coldest regions, or those where everlasting dryness reigns; in temperate countiies 



^., terresti'ial, in warmer latitudes gi'owing 



. ^i'llJ-i on trees (epiphytes), or fixing themselves 



'^^VCY^A **^ stones. Their roots are fibrous and 



^!^^^ fasciculated, fleshy or resembling tubers, 



xJam-k', and these filled with starch, or homy 



nodules of bassorin. Stem none, or long 



and annual, or perennial and woody, 



forming a rhizome, or jointed branches. 



Leaves flat, terete or equitant, generally 



sheathmg, membranous, coriaceous, or 



hard, never lobed, occasionally bordered 



by cartilaginous teeth, their veins parallel, 



almost never slightly reticulated. Flowers 



, irregular, extremely variable in form, 



solitary, clustered, spiked, I'acemose, or 



panicled, always supported by a solitary 



bract ; very often most gratefully fragrant, 



Fig. CXVII. 



sometimes fetid, and not un- 

 frequently scentless. Peri- 

 anth adherent, variable, her- 

 baceous or coloured, mem- 

 branous or fleshy, permanent 

 and withering, or deciduous ; 

 its parts arranged in two rows, 

 rarely in 3, free or adhering 

 in various ways ; very often 

 resupinate in consequence of 

 a twist in the ovary. Se- 

 pals (which, morphologically 

 speaking, are petals) 3, equal 

 at the base, or variously ex- 

 tended or expanded there ; 

 the two lateral standing in front when the ovary is twisted, and the third then dorsal, or 



cxvni. 



Fig. CXVII.— Herminium monorchis. 



Fig. CX VIII. —Accidental manner of producing a jointed stem in Aspasia epidendroides. 



