PETALOIDEE 199 
by means of their long fleshy roots. The Bird’s Nest 
Orchid derives its nourishment from the roots of 
trees. 
There are about five thousand species of Orchids 
and four hundred genera. Some, the majority, are 
land-plants, terrestrial, a number are epiphytes and 
some saprophytes. 
Dr. Lindley writes of this group : 
‘‘There is no order of plants, the structure of 
whose flowers is so anomalous as regards the relation 
borne to each other by the parts of reproduction, 
or so singular in respect to the form, texture and 
colour; neither have they any similitude to the 
changes of outline that are met with in such irregular 
flowers as are produced in other parts of the vege- 
table creation. On the contrary, by an excessive 
development and singular conformation of one of the 
petals called the labellum or lip, and by irregularities 
either of form, size, or direction of the other sepals 
and petals, by the peculiar adhesion of these parts to 
each other, and by the occasional suppression of a 
portion of them, flowers are produced so grotesque 
in form that it is no longer with the vegetable king- 
dom that they can be compared, but their resem- 
blance must be sought in the animal world. Hence 
we see such names among our native plants as the 
Bee, Fly, Man, Lizard, and Butterfly Orchis, and 
appellations of a like nature/in foreign countries. One 
orchid in particular mimics a monkey, another a dove 
descending, hence the plant is called Spirito Santo.” 
