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CLASS 20. GYNANDRIA. 



(Containing Plants whose Stamens are united with the style.) 



Of all the classes this is by much the most interesting, both 

 on account of the Foreign and British plants which it contains. 

 Not that they are very important either for food or in the arts 

 on the contrary, no very useful produce is extracted from them, 

 but they strike and rivet the attention by the very uncommon 

 and extraordinary forms their flowers assume. Here are all of 

 the Orchis tribe, of which we have, more or less common, 

 about forty species. All of these are highly curious, as their 

 names along will imply, they being given because of some 

 real resemblance in shape, and often in size, with the objects 

 they are called after. Thus we have the Bee Flower or Orchis , 

 the Fly Orchis, the Spider Orchis, the Man Orchis, the 

 Monkey Orchis, the Lizard Orchis, the Butterfly Orchis, the 

 Bird's -Nest Orchis, the Coral-Root Orchis, and that beautiful 

 but very rare plant the Lady's Slipper. Some of the above 

 are not very rare, being found mostly in woods and thickets. 

 The formation of the stamens is highly curious. The pollen is 

 found sometimes in powdery lumps, as in other plants, but 

 more frequently it resembles little bits of bright yellow wax 

 these are two together, stalked, and furnished at the lower end 

 with glands or swellings. The glands are in some species 

 naked, but mostly concealed in one or two little pouches or 

 bags, and according to these circumstances the genera are 

 known. 



Order 1. MONANDRIA. 1 Stamen. 



ORCHIS, (Orchis.) Lip of the corolla spurred ; glands at 

 the end of the stalks of the pollen masses, inclosed in one 

 pouch. 



