VI. OKCHIDE^. 



775 



TEIBE VI. NEOTTIE31. 



Pollinia sub-pulverulent; granules loosely coherent, fixed to a retinaculum. 

 Anther parallel to the stigma, persistent, cells close together. Terrestrial plants, 

 with fascicled fibrous or tuberous roots, sometimes epiphytes, sometimes aphyl- 

 lous, or parasites ? resembling Orobanchece. 



Ponthiseva. Prescottia. 



Stenorhynchus. Pelexia. 

 Diuris. Orthoceras. 



PKINCIPAL GENERA. 



Listera. Neottia. 



Goodyera. Anaectochilus. 



Prasophyllum. Thelyinitra. 



Epipactis. 

 Physurus. 



Spiranthes. 

 Zeuxine. 



TEIBE VII. CYPRIPEDIEdl. 



Anthers 2, lateral, both fer- 

 tile, the intermediate one peta- 

 loid. Pollen granular, softening 

 during fertilization. Stigma 

 divided into 3 areolae opposite to 

 the stamens. 



CULTIVATED GENERA. 



Cypripedium. Uropedium. 



Selenipedium. 



Orchidete, which form one of the 

 most natural families of the Vegetahle 

 Kingdom, have taxed the sagacity of 

 our most eminent botanists Dupetit- 

 Thouars,R.Brown, L. C.Richard,Blume, 

 Lindley, &c. They are especially re- 

 markable for the curiously varied shapes 

 and colours of their perianth, which 

 resembles most dissimilar objects as a 

 helmet, slipper, fly, bee, beetle, a little 

 monkey, &c. and the relative sizes of 

 which are sometimes extraordinarily dif- 

 ferent (Uropedium). The androecium, 

 which is gynandrous, like that of Aris- 

 tolochiea (page 705), the pollen agglo- 

 merated into masses, as in Asclepiadece 

 (page 553), and the undivided embryo, 

 are all exceptional characters, which 

 might render their position in the sys- 

 tem doubtful, were it not that the 

 structure of their stem, the nervation of 

 their leaves, and the arrangement of 

 their hexaphylloua and 2-seriate peri- 

 anth, evidently place them among Mono- 

 cotyledons. Incomplete as their androecium appears, the ternary type of most Monocotyledonous families 

 may yet be traced in it. According to the sagacious observations of R. Brown, it is composed, sometimes 



Cypripedium tpectabile. 



