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GYNANDRIA MONANDRIA and 

 DIANDRIA. 



The first and second Orders of this Class are perfectly na- 

 tural, without any exception, or exclusion, comprehend- 

 ing the whole natural order of the 0?'chis tribe, and, as 

 far as our knowledge at present extends, no other plant 

 whatever. The cells of the anther being, in several in- 

 stances, more or less distant from each other, Linnaeus 

 understood the whole tribe as diandrous ; but Swartz 

 and others have corrected this error, proved to be such 

 by the near relations of these plants the Scitaminece, 

 the cells of whose anther are, in some instances, still 

 more widely separated ; in others full as decidedly united, 

 so as to constitute a single anther. The analogy of other 

 parts of the Jlower in that fine exotic order, with which 

 Mr. Roscoe alone may be said to have made botanists 

 familiar, will, if I mistake not, render us better ac- 

 quainted with the same parts in the beautiful and favour- 

 ite family of Orchidece. I shall, in the first place, give 

 its characters according to the ideas I have been in- 

 duced to adopt from Nature herself, as well as from a 

 careful study of the publications of Linnseus and Haller, 

 compared with the transcendent improvements of Dr. 

 Swartz and Mr. R. Brown. 



Orc/iide«. Linn. 7. Juss. 21. Br. Pr. 309. See .Grammar, 8 1 — 

 84./. 70—72, n, 78. 



Flowers all complete and perfect. Embryo simple, or, as it 

 is usually expressed, monocotyledonous. 



Calyx superior, of 3 leaves, either spreading or converging, 

 sometimes coloured ; the uppermost often vaulted ; rare- 

 ly extended at the base ; 2 lateral ones opposite, equal ; 

 sometimes combined laterally, or dilated, or elongated, 

 at the lower part ; all either deciduous, or, more rarely, 

 permanent. 



Corolla likewise of 3 parts. Petals 2, interior, between the 

 lateral and uppermost calyx-leaves, less than either, 

 and almost always of a different substance and colour, 

 ascending, or sometimes converging. Nectary a lip, in 

 the same circle with the petals, projecting, or dependent, 

 between the lateral calyx-leaves in front, often extended 

 behind, beyond the calyx, in the form of one hollow 



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