CHARACTER OF THE FLOWERS OF ORCHIDS. 53 



florae is an ornament, which you may call the Lilies of 

 the Dicotyledones. An Azalia, a Rhododendron is 

 higher developed; they show coloring on their corolla, 

 and bear marks which remind us of the lip of an orchid 

 flower. Pelargonium liken them and show us a clear-cut 

 face. And the Pansy is a flower which Dick and Tom 

 term "face" any day. Plainer yet, and still higher 

 organized, are to me the Labiatse, and I would like to 

 see a system claim highest rank for them as they un- 

 doubtedly show higher breed than the proletariat of 

 Composites. The Papilionacese are most rightly placed 

 at the head of the natural system. But are they indeed 

 the highest development of our present flora? I feel 

 satisfied that they carry the material for the highest de- 

 velopment, though their position is far from perfection. 

 But much as all these instances illustrate, much as they 

 prove and more as they offer for debate, who is more 

 praiseworthy, he who accomplishes much with much or 

 he who perfects more with less? The latter, most assur- 

 edly; and let us conclude therefore: in the present state 

 of flora's realm no family equals in organization the 

 development of the orchid. All those cases cited of 

 Pansy, Pelargonium, and Azalia, they one and all belong 

 to the Dicotyledones, plants built up after the five sys- 

 tem. But the orchids are composed of organs associated 

 in threes. And what have not they accomplished! 

 Their structure, their irregularity in denied symmetry, 

 their coloring in centralizing effect, all these are facts 

 the worth of which we can not estimate too highly. 

 Where is the orchid flower which betrays its humble 

 origin? which lets you guess at its relationship to grasses 

 and sedges? In vain you trace for the traitor. There is 

 the cause why we should esteem them more highly than 

 all the faceshowing flowers of the Dicotyledones, in the 



