72 Nat. order. — orchide^. «; 



plant is examined, it will be found to consist oi a fleshy body, sta- 

 tioned opposite the labellum, bearing a solitary anther at its apex, 

 and having in front a viscid cavity, ujion the upper edge of which 

 there is often a slight callosity. This cavity is the stigma, and the 

 callosity is the point through which the fertilizating matter of the 

 pollen passes into the tissue communicating with the ovules. 

 Hence, such a plant would appear to be monandrous. 



Plants of the order Orchidese are remai'kable for the bizarre 

 figure of their multiform flower, which sometimes represents an 

 insect, sometimes a helmet with the visor ixp, and sometimes a 

 grinning monkey : so various are these forms, so numerous their 

 colors, and so complicated their combinations, that there is 

 scarcely a common reptile or insect to which some of them have 

 not been likened. They all, however, will be found to consist of 

 three outer pieces belonging to the calyx, and three inner belong- 

 ing to the corolla ; and all departures from this number, six, de- 

 pends upon the cohesion of contiguous parts, with the solitary 

 exception of IMonomeria, in which the lateral petals are entirely 

 abortive. In nearly the whole order, the odd petal, called the 

 labellum, rises from the base of the column, and is opjjosite it. 

 The pollen is not less curious: now we have it in separate grains, 

 as in other plants, but cohering to a meshwork of cellular tissue, 

 which is collected into a sort of central elastic strap ; the gran- 

 ules cohere in small, angular, indefinite masses, and the central 

 elastic strap becomes more apparent, and has a glandular extrem- 

 ity, which is often reclined in a peculiar pouch, especially destined 

 for its protection ; again, the jjoUen combines into larger masses, 

 which are definite in number, and attached to another modification 

 of the elastic strap ; and finally, a complete union of the pollen 

 takes place, in solid waxy masses, without any distinct trace of 

 this central elastic tissue. 



Such is a part of the singularities of Orchideous i)lants, and 

 upon these the distinctions of their tribes and genera are naturally 



