Ill 



BA1OK 



OHCHIDACBjK. 



ill 



UM cteonMl nwabor of flve lumbar rerUbm instead of four, which 

 it tin number exwlioc in the trunk of the mature Orang preserved in 

 UM afusmrn of UM Zoological Society of London, end in the Skeleton 

 m UM Museum of Comparative Anatomy io the Jardin-des Plantee. 

 TU form of Ux litiug animal. mod its habit* in captivity, hare been 

 made familiar by several peoiian< which have been kept in the 

 Timlin of the Zoological Society in the Kegenfs Park. 



OHAXOK. [Ciww] 



ORASOE-LILY. [Liuru.] 



ORANGE TRIBE. [Auu5rucu] 



ORBICULA. [BRACUIUPOI.A.] 

 ORBlTOt.lTKS. [Mli.LEPORlD.iL] 



. r 



i.KCA. i. 



ORCHIDA CK.K, natural order of Endogenous Plants, with the 

 aUment and style consolidated into a central column, and with an 

 " ' ovary : they constitute the whole of the clau Gynandria 

 trial of the Luuucan classification. There i 110 order of plant* 

 of whoee flowen U to anomaloiu as regards the relation 

 bone to each other by the parts of reproduction, or ao singular in 

 rssBirt to the form of tie floral envelope* [OMDOm.] Unlike other 

 endogenous plant*, the calyx and corolla are not similar to each other 

 In form, texture, and colour; neither hare they any similitude to the 

 I linages of outline that are met with in tuch irregular flower* aa are 

 produced in other part* of the vegetable creation. On the contrary, 

 by an exonaive development and singular conformation of one of the 

 petal* called the labelium or lip, and by irregularities either of form, 

 is*, or direction of the other aepala and petals, by the peculiar adhesion 

 of three parta to each other, and by the occasional suppreaaion of a 

 portion of them, flowen are produced so groteaque in form that it is 

 BO loofrr with the vegetable kingdom that they can be compared, but 

 we an forced to March for resemblance* in the animal world. Hence 

 we have such names among our native planta aa the liee. Fly, Man, 

 Luard, and Butterfly Orchis, and appellations of the like nature in 

 foreign connUiea. Of theae things some idea may be formed by the 

 cot, where 1 representa Oacufritat ram/rmm, or the Frog- 

 , so called because ils lip bean at its haw the figure of a frog 

 ; J. Ptriittria tlala, the Spirito Santo Plant of Panama, 

 in whoa* flower we find the likeneas of a dove in the act of descending 

 npon UM lip ; 3, Prtteotlia colorant, whoee lip is a fleshy hood ; 4, 

 Oomffon fmlra ; 5, Cirrkaa trulii; 6, Cyenoeka rentricotum, singularly 

 like a swan, the arched column forming the head and neck ; 7, Oaci- 

 dtmm foJrixahim ; 8, BollxtfAflliim bari/iycrun ; 9, C'ataietum riride; 

 and 10, f'erulma co-ma. 



In coawqorooe of taoir sinfuUr forms, their gay colour*, and the 

 oVUeknu fragrance of many of those plants, they have of late yean 



been cultivated with great seal, both in this country and abroad. 

 [Ki'iriiTTF*.] 



Orchidaceous planta inhabit all parta of the world, except those 

 which are excessively dry or excessively cold, both of which appear 

 uncongenial to their nature, and they are most abundant in such as 

 have an equable mild climate, moist and warm during thu greater part 

 of the year. Thus we hare not a single species from Melville Island, 

 or Nova Zambia, or from the upper regions of northern mountains, 

 nor from the deMrts of Africa ; and the whole province of Mendoza, 

 one of the dry western states of South America, produces but one, and 

 that in a inarsb. On the contrary, the woods of Brazil and equatorial 

 America, of the lower ranges of the Himalayas, and of the Indian 

 Archipelago, pouess countless myriads of these productions. In general 

 in hot countries the species are epiphytes, inhabiting tl e branches of 

 trees, or the aides of rocks and stones, to which they cling by means 

 of long twisting fleshy roots ; aud terrestrial species, that is to say, 

 such as grow exclusively in the ground, are rare and unknown : in 

 colder countries, on the contrary, the former are unknown nn-1 the 

 latter only represent the order. Thus in North America, where Orchi- 

 daceous Plants are plentiful, the epiphytal species are almost unknown, 

 a single species only occurring in Florida upon the branches of thu 

 Magnolia. Some of them are true parasite*, deriving their food from 

 the roots of trees upon which they grow. In this country we have 

 two cases of the kind, one the Neoltin A'iJiu-Arit, or i'ird's-Xest 

 Orchis, a brownish scaly plant springing up occasionally in woods, 

 and the other the Coraitorhiza innalu, or Coral-Hoot, aa occasional 

 but very uncommon inhabitant of marshes. 



The roots arc of the following kinds: Firstly, annual blender fibres, 

 simple or branched, of a succulent nature, incapable of extension, and 

 burrowing under ground, aa in the genus Orckit. Secondly, annual 

 fleshy tubercles, round or oblong, simple or divided, as in the various 

 species of the same genus; they are always combined with the first, 

 and appear, from their containing amylaceous granules in large quan- 

 tity, to be intended as receptacles of matter fit for the nutrition of 

 the plant Tubercles of this kiud have always a bud at their extre- 

 mity, and may bo considered the principal inferior prolongation of the 

 axis. Thirdly, fleshy, simple, or branched perennial bodies, much 

 entangled, tortuous, aud irregular in form, as in Uorullorlu'za. .\eotlia, 

 &c., or nearly simple and resembling tubers, as in (Itutrodia. And 

 fourthly, perennial round shoots, simple or a little branched, capable 

 of extension, protruded from the stem into the air, adapted to adhering 

 to other bodies, aud formed of a woody and vascular axis covered 

 with cellular tissue, of which the subcutaneous layer is often green 

 and composed of large reticulated cells. The points of these roots are 

 uminlly green, but sometimes red or yellow. In a very few instances 

 of leafless species, as Cliilotchuta tuncoida, they become entirely green, 

 and then appear to perform the functions of leaves. 



The stem is found in its most simple state in the terrestrial O/ihrydeir, 

 where it is only a growing point, surrounded by scales and constituting 

 a leaf-bud when at rest, which eventually grows into a secondary stem 

 or branch, on which the leaves and flowera ore developed. This kind 

 of stem usually forms every year a lateral bud with a tubercular root 

 at iU lower cud, and, having unfolded its flowers and ripened its 

 fruit, periithot, to be succeeded by the stem belonging to the lateral 

 bud previously prepared ; hence those species to which this kind of 

 stem belongs have always a pair of tubercles, one shrivelling and in pro- 

 gress of exhaustion, the other swelling and in progress of completion. 



The leaves are very uncertain in their appearance : usually they are 

 sheathing at the base, and membranous; but in Vanillea they are 

 hard, stalked, articulated with the stem, aud have no trace of a sheath. 

 Frequently they nre leathery and veinless, as frequently they are 

 membranous and strongly ribbed, ami both these condition.) occur in 

 the same genus, as iu Afajillaria and ' ////r/;./im. In a large uumbji- 

 of the epiphytal species the leaves are notched unequally at the 

 apex, a singular structure which bat not yet been noticed in tlioas 

 with membranous leaves. 



Their floral envrlopes are constructed irregularly upon a ternary 

 type, and consist of three exterior and three interior pieces. The 

 exterior pieces are usually uearly equal, and less brightly coloured 

 than the interior ; but the two lateral ones are often of a somev. h <t 

 different form from the other, which is anterior as the flower is placed 

 upon the inflorescence when young, but which often become - 

 tenor when the flower is expanded, in consequence of the flower-st.ilk 

 being twisted nr curved ; these parts are occasionally united by their 

 edges into a long tube, as in Matdnallia, or the lateral ones adhere 

 to the unguis of tho lip in various degrees, or two of them are con- 

 solidated into one, as iu Corycium aud many other genera. Occasion- 

 ally the int.M-nip.li.ite piece is prolonged at the back or bnse into one 

 or two hollow spurn, as in the genera Salyrium and Jiita ; still more 

 rarely the lateral pieces are also spurred, an in IHij,cri. Various 

 other less important modifications of the exterior pieces occur, but 

 in all cases the whole number, thr.-r, H present The interior pieces 

 are usually three, never more ; but in the instances of Monomeria and 

 . the intermediate one only is present They are generally 

 unequal, the two lateral pieces corresponding in form and size, while 

 that between them, called the lip, is of some other form and size : in 

 the genus Thdymitra however, and in I'ajionia, they are all alike. 

 Nothing can be more variable than the proportions they bear to each 



