stitutiones Rei Herbariae 1: 481-488 (1701) dealt with 
them as a special group under the heading ‘De Herbis, 
flore polypetalo, anomalo’, this including Orchis, Helle- 
borine, Calceolus (i.e. Cypripedium), Ophris (i.e. Listera), 
Limodorum and Nidus avis (i.e. Neottia). Unlike his 
predecessors, he provided concise generic descriptions. 
Within Orehis he included plants with flowers resembling 
‘nunc Hominem nudum, modo Papilionem, Fucum, 
Columbam, Simiam, Lacertam, Psittacum, Muscam, 
caeterave repraesentante’ now put in Orchis, Dactylo- 
rhiza, Ophrys, Himantoglossum, Aceras, ete. This ex- 
traordinary mimicry of animal forms by the flowers of 
orchids had already excited the admiration of Jacob 
Breyne (1637-1697) in his Hwvoticarum aliorumque minus 
cognitarum Plantarum, 94 (1678) as Ames noted in his 
essay, ‘Orchids in retrospect’ (in Amer. Orchid Soc. Bull. 
11: 102-106; 1942). The orchids known to these early 
authors were north-temperate species. Of the astonish- 
ing richness of the tropics in orchids they knew nothing. 
In 1708, H.A. van Rheede tot Draakestein (1685 
1691) posthumously recorded six orchids from Malabar, 
southern India, in his Hortus Indicus Malabaricus, these 
being now known as Rhynchostylis retusa, Vanda spath- 
ulata, Acampe Wightiana, Sarcanthus peninsularis, Den- 
drobium ovatum and Cymbidium alotfolium. 
On his visit to Jamaica in 1687 to 1689, Sir Hans 
Sloane (1660-1753) found a number of epiphytic orchids. 
Those recorded in his Voyage to the Islands Madera xxx 
and Jamaica (1707-25) as species of Viscum, Cardamon, 
ete. are now known as Brassavola cordata, Oncidium 
guttatum, Broughtonia sanguinea, Vanilla claviculata, 
Stenorrhynchus speciosus and Hrythrodes plantaginea. 
About the same time, another doctor, Engelbert 
Kaempfer (1651-1716), was becoming acquainted with 
a few of the many orchids of Java and Japan. He illus- 
> 
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