AND THEIR SYSTEMATICAL ARRANGEMENT. 97 



others which are certain, without doing violence 

 to nature. 



It is with this view, that I propose giving the 

 outlines of a new systematical arrangement of the 

 Whole order of Orchideas. This I may perhaps 

 be the more justified in attempting, as I have had 

 the advantage of examining a considerable number 

 of these singular vegetables in their native climate, 

 the West-Indies ; and, through the kindness of 

 Prof. Thunberg, Sparrmann and Afzelius, 

 of many African Orchidea?, brought by them from 

 that part of the globe. Nor is the number of 

 those considered European ones, which have fallen 

 under my examination, by any means inconsider- 

 able ; in short, after having minutely examined 

 more than two hundred different species, I think it 

 incumbent upon me to communicate the results of 

 my observations to the botanical world. * 



It will be found that I have often changed the 

 generic, and more frequently still the specific, 

 characters ; adding several genera, and removing 

 others to very different places, which, in my opi- 

 nion, they ought to occupy. Perhaps 1 shall be 



G 



