ORCHIDALES. 



469 



D 



the minute seeds containing a rudimentary embryo and no 

 endosperm. . 



Order Apostasiaceee, a small order of East Indian plants, which are 

 interesting because of their 

 evident relationship to the 

 Orchids, from which they 

 differ in having the style 

 partially free from the sta- 

 mens. 



Order Orchidacese. 

 The Orchids. Terrestrial 

 or epiphytic plants, whose 

 stamens and style are com- 

 pletely united into a com- 

 mon column or gyrioste- 

 mium. The three thousand 

 species are found in " all 

 climates and in all situa- 

 tions but maritime and 

 aquatic." (Hooker.) 



This order Las long been 

 highly esteemed for the 

 many curiously shaped and 

 colored flowers it affords, 

 and many hundreds of its 

 species are to be found in 

 cultivation in conservato- 

 ries. They are interesting 

 also from the fact that none 

 of them are, unaided, capa- 

 ble of fertilizing their 

 ovules, and appear in every 

 case to be dependent upon 

 insects for the transport of 

 the pollen and its deposition 

 upon the stigma. 



This great order is usu- 

 ally divided into seven 

 tribes, as under. 



Tribe I. 



Fig. Wl.Orcfiis maculnta. A, a symmetrical 

 vertical section of a flower bud. B, transverse sec 

 tion of the bud. C, transverse section of ovary 



Cypripe- Z>7"mature" flower, "with one sepal removed ; i 

 with two nnllinifpr axis of flow er cluster ; 5, bract ; , sepals ; j,pei 

 , witli two pollmiter- a)g . jj abe n um; , its spur; a and pi, pollen 

 OUS stamens containing mass ; h. its viscid disc ; gs, the column (zyno 

 r.,,io, v. 11 n?- op \ stpmium); near gs is the stigma which projects 

 granular pollen (Fig. 362). toward $ /, inferior ovary, twisted in D; st, sta- 



in this the genus Cypri- minodes. After Sachs. 



pedium, which contains our native Lady's-Slipper8,is the most important. 

 Some of the species, notably C. xpec'abile and C. acaule, are greatly ad- 

 mired in cultivation. 



