Towards the end of the 17th century came the huge 
works of John Ray (1628-1705) and Robert Morison 
(1620-1683). Ray’s account occupies pages 1212-12338 
of volume 2 of his Historia Plantarum (1688), the spe- 
cies being listed under the names Orchis, Tragorchis, 
Cynosorchis, Chamaeorchis, Monorchis, Triorchis, Palm- 
ata, Pseudo-Orchis, Nidus-avis, Pscudo-limodoron, Helle- 
borine and Bifolium. He possessed a good knowledge of 
these plants derived from his extensive travels in Britain 
and on the Continent of Kurope, and his descriptions 
give significant details as regards the species but no for- 
mal generic characters. His comments on the great difh- 
culty of studying orchids on account of the numerous 
allied species and the inadequate descriptions by bota- 
nists, of which one description can apply to several spe- 
cies and several different descriptions to one species, has 
unfortunately not ceased to be true: ‘Caeterum cum 
Orchidum historia magna confusione et obscuritate lab- 
oret, partim ob multitudinem specierum, et nonnullarum 
etiam similitudinem, partim ob earum apud_ botanicos 
descriptiones, adeo breves interdum et generales ut et 
una pluribus, et plures uni alicul speciel accommodari 
possint: unde perspicacissimum quemque et in his studiis 
versatissimum torqueant et perplexum reddant necesse 
est’ (ist. 2: 1212: 1685). This was a state of affairs 
which Linnaeus set out to remedy. 
In the third volume (1699) of Morison’s Plantarum 
FAistoria universalis Oxvoniensis, which was completed by 
Jacob Bobart after Morison’s death, 108 kinds of Orchid- 
aceae are listed together, though associated with other 
plants having minute seeds such as Orobanche and Pyr- 
ola. These are put in six genera: Helleborine, Bifolium 
sive Ophris, Triorchis et Monorchis, Orchis palmata, 
Pseud-orchis. 
Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656-1708) in his In- 
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