3 1 



By what means such changes have been effected and such 

 remarkable structures produced we cannot tell. Evolution 

 would teach us that if all the lost forms were present a gradua- 

 tion could be traced to one primitive form ; that by the " survival 

 of the fittest" there has been a continual advance in complexity 

 of structure, and as Sachs observes, " A few million years, more 

 or less, is a matter of but little consequence in the explanation 

 of facts which require lapse of time in order to reach a given 

 magnitude." Still the difficulties are innumerable, and it is 

 impossible to understand upon the evolution theory alone why 

 the changes that have taken place should have resulted in such 

 astonishingly diverse contrivances for effecting the particular 

 purpose of cross-fertilisation, for to this the majority tend. The 

 advantages derived from cross-fertilisation have been ably de- 

 scribed, in the struggle for life the plants thus obtained seeming 

 usually to possess greater strength than those from self-fertilised 

 parents ; yet there are numbers of Orchids in which the adaptation 

 seems directly in favour of self- fertilisation, and some are apparently 

 planned for both methods. In the majority of cases, however, 

 there is a manifest adaptation of the various organs to a 

 particular purpose, and had the estimable Dr. Paley been 

 familiar with the wonderful structure of Orchids, when he wrote 

 his celebrated " Natural Theology," he would unquestionably 

 have derived from them a powerful addition to his argument of 

 design. 



CLASSIFICATION. 



Founded chiefly upon the characters of the Pollen-masses, Dr. 

 Lindley formed a system of classifying Orchids, that may be 

 briefly summarised as follows : 



Pollen-masses, waxy. 

 Malaxideas, no caudicle. 



Epidendreae, one or two caudicles, but no gland. 

 Vandeae, one or two caudicles, attached gland. 



Pollen -masses, granular or powdery. 

 Ophrydeae, anther adnate to the top of the column. 

 Arethuseae, anther operculate over the rostellum. 

 Neottieas, anther erect, behind the rostellum. 



Abnormal tribes 

 Cypripedieae, anthers 2. 

 Apostasieae, anthers 2 or 3, Ovary 3-celled. 



This has been generally accepted, but the latest system is 



