BEE OV.CRl^. — 02jhri/sa2Afera. 



class Gynandria. Order Mona>tiria. Xat. Ord. Orchid E^. 

 Orchis Tribe. 



This flower belongs to a tribe in wliich blos- 

 soms are produced that seem rather to bear a 

 resemblance to the animal, than to the vege- 

 table world. Among our native orchidaceous 

 plants, we have the Fly, the Bee, the Lizard, 

 the Man, the Butterfly, and the Spider orchises, 

 but with the exception of the first two, there 

 does not exist in these plants a very great simi- 

 larity to the objects whence they are named. 

 But it is not so in tropical lands, where 

 orchidaceous plants wave among the highest 

 bouo^hs of the loftv trees, and as the wind 

 sweeps in among them, display the glittering 



lom-s of the most beautiful butterflies, which 

 -rem perched upon the bough. There too the 

 Froo- Oncidium reminds the traveller of the 

 rneiTy creatm'e which leaps among the grass of 

 the Enghsh meadows ; or another beautiful 

 flower recals the swan of the streams ; while 

 one orchis so wefl represents a descending dove, 



Xo. 6. 



