CHAPTER GEE 
STRUCTURE AND OTHER 
PECULIARITIES. 
BEFORE entering upon the description of those members 
of the Orchid family which we have selected for special 
consideration as garden plants, it will be well to give a 
slight sketch of the Order, and to glance at those points 
of structure by which it is distinguished. There is pro- 
bably no Order in the whole Vegetable Kingdom the limits 
of which are more clearly defined; and there is certainly 
none which, within those limits, exhibits more variety than 
the one now before us in the colour, shape, or odour of 
its blossoms. It is in the structure of the flowers, too, 
that we find the features which specially characterise the 
Order. 
It is not our purpose to go into a botanical disquisition 
upon the structure of an Orchidaceous flower; but there 
are one or two terms connected with it which are of con- 
stant occurrence, and may therefore be fitly explained here. 
In an ordinary regular flower, such as the Buttercup, we 
have, besides the stamens and pistils, two outer rows—one 
of petals, forming the corolla, and one of sepals, forming 
the calyx. In dicotyledonous plants, the calyx, speaking 
generally, is green, and the corolla coloured, so that they 
