Orchidales.] 



ORCHIDACE^. 



17: 



4 Fig. CXXI. 



and finally a complete irnion of 

 the poUen takes place, in solid 

 waxy masses, ^\•ithout any 

 distinct trace of tliis central 

 elastic tissue. Such is a part 

 of the singularities of Orchida- 

 ceous plants, and upon these 

 the distinctions of their tribes 

 and genera are naturally 

 founded. Whoever studies 

 them must bear in mind that 

 their fructification is always 

 reducible to 3 sepals, 3 petals, 

 a column consisting of 3 sta- 

 mens gi'OA^Ti firmly to one 

 another, and to a single style 

 and stigma ; and, ^vith this 

 view, he will have no difficulty 

 in understanding the organiza- 

 tion of even the most anoma- 

 lous Cape species. In the last 

 edition of this work an Order 

 called VaniUacese was proposed, 

 about which I shall only say 

 that its introduction would 

 have been much better omitted. 



Professor Link has shown 

 that beyond aU doubt the nu- 

 cleus of the seed in this Order 

 is a naked embryo, with an 

 excessively enlarged radicula. 

 See his beautiful figm'es in 

 the Ausgew'dlte Anatomisck- 

 botanische Ahhildungen fasc. 2. 

 t. vii. Here we again have a 

 structure analogous to that of 

 Nymphsea and Nelumbium. 



Among the most singular 

 circumstances connected with 

 this Order is the manner in 

 which, upon the same spike, 

 flowers of extremely differ- 

 ent structure are produced. 

 This was first noticed in Deme- 

 rara by Sir R. Schomburgk, 

 who published in the Linn. 

 Transactions (17. 551.) an 



less curious : now we have it in 

 separate grams, as in other plants, 

 but cohering to a meshwork of cel- 

 lular tissue, which is collected into 

 a sort of centi'al elastic strap ; now 

 the granules cohere in small angular 

 indefinite masses, and the central 

 elastic strap, becoming mox^e appa- 

 rent, is found attached to a glandular 

 process of the stigma, which is often 

 inclosed in a peculiar pouch espe- 

 cially destined for its protection ; 

 agam, the pollen combines into 

 larger masses, which are definite in 

 number, and attached to another 

 modification of the elastic strap ; 



Fig. CXXII. 



Fig. CXXI.— 1. Pollen masses of Oplirys apifera ; 2. of Phaius Tanken-illia ; 3. of Brassia maculatu; 

 *. of Malaxis paludosa ; 5. Pollen of Stenorhj-nchus speciosus. 

 Fig. CXXII.— 2. Cycnoches ventricosiim ; 4 and .5. C. Egertoniauuni : the others intermediate forms. 



X 



