THE VICTOEIAN NATURALIST 23 



from satisfactorj, the forms can often scarcely be ascertained 

 accui'ately from dried specimens, and colours very rarely." I have 

 thoug it it better to use this information from the above work, as it 

 may not be easily accessible to all of you, and it bears out the 

 wisdom of Baron Von Mueller, who is using his best endeavours to 

 simplify matters by reducing largely the number of published species 

 in Or>:liids_, as well as in other orders of plants, and for whicli you will 

 agree with me lie deserves our thanks. I cannot allow this oppor- 

 tunity to pass without referring to the splendid work on the Orchids 

 of Australia published by Mr. Fitzgerald, of Sydney, the coloured 

 illustrations and letter-press of which are a credit plike to the author 

 and to the colony. I have, as you will see, dispensed with tlie 

 common names of the Orchids, you would make little or nothing out 

 of them, and they are often misleading, because, go where you 

 will, eacli township, at least as far as my experience goes, lias its 

 own local names, all of which are more or less ridiculous. I have 

 attempted little in the way of scientific description, as these are 

 obtainable from the Flora, the Census, (just published by Baron 

 Von Mueller), and other works on Australian Botany. The 

 iibbreviated descriptions are taken verbatim from the Flora Aus- 

 traliansis. In concluding these introductory remarks, I may mention 

 that so far as we are aware, there are at present described from 

 Victoria t wenty-two genera and about seventy-three species . This 

 will include the various species recently^discovered as being new for 

 Victoria, the names and descriptions of which are published in the 

 ■" Census," and in the Records of the Pharmaceutical Society and 

 S.S. Record. I have adopted the system given by Bentham and 

 Mueller, and in the Census, viz. : — commencing with the genus 

 Dendrobium , and ending with Glossodia . . P/ 'ij J~ 



Dmdrobiijm (Swartz.) '3. 0. i yZj^Tk, R. ."b^rs^. oj 



Sepals nearly equal in length, petals usually nearly th-e length ^ 



of upper sepal or rather longer, column not very long, winged or 

 toothed at the top, anther terminal lid-like, pollen masses 4, 

 Khizome tufted or creeping on trees and rocks, stems ^e longated 

 and branching, or simple and thick, and usually bearing both 

 leaves and racemes, or one flower peduncules, flowers often rather 

 large and showy, and rarely very small. This splendid genus 

 includes some of the most gorgeous and magnificent kinds of 

 known Orchids, of which our botany can boast but two species . , 



1. — Dh.yuROBiUM sPECiosuM (Smith.) Stems thick and fleshy, ^^t--^-^-. 

 six inches to one foot in height, leaves few, two to five, flowers 

 numerous, large, pale yellow, l abellum shorter than sepals, 

 column white, often spotted with purple. This beautiful and 

 favourite Orchid is known to most of you by its thickflesh^ 

 leaves and pseudo-bulbs , and its long racemes of splendid yellow" 



E 



and white flowers. I believe it is very common in many parts ol 



