86 EXGLISn EOT ANT. 



apparently the lowest or posterior segment) almost always differing 

 from the others in shape and direction, and termed the laheUum or lip ; 

 in several of the genera with a spur at the base. Essential organs 

 combined into a central column or gtjnosteme opjiosite the lip. Stamens 

 3, but the 2 lateral ones generally abortive, and the one next the 

 labellum only bearing an anther, though in one genus this is abortive 

 and the two lateral stamens are antheriferous ; anthers 2-celled, some- 

 times with the septum incomplete, sometimes 4-celled, from the pro- 

 duction of secondary septa, or rarely with 8 cells ; pollen often waxy, 

 cohering in masses (poUinia) which are frequently attached to the stigma 

 by a stalk (caudictde), by a gland (retinacide) of the stigma contained 

 in a pouch (bursicule)^ more rarely the pollen is powdery, as in the 

 majority of plants. Ovary inferior, adnate to the tube of the perianth, 

 1 -celled with 3 parietal placentae; ovules indefinite, anatropous; 

 style forming part of the column with the stamens, very rarely 

 ^lartially free ; stigma a viscid space in front of the column, some- 

 times extended into a process {toitellum) bearing the pouches which 

 contain the glands to which the bases of the caudicules of the pollinia 

 are affixed when these are present. Capsule dry, rarely a berry, open- 

 ing by 6 slits, which have 3 seed-bearing valves alternate with 3 narrow 

 ribs to which no seeds are attached, and which commonly persist for 

 Bome time after the seed-bearing valves decay. Seeds very nmnerous 

 and minute, with a lax reticulated integument produced beyond each 

 end of the solid part,, more rarely mth the integument adhering closely 

 to the solid part, or very rarely with a crustaceous integument; albumen 

 none ; embryo fleshy, with the radicle next the hilum. 



Tribe L— OPHRYDE^. 



Anther 1, wholly adnate to the column, persistent; pollen masses 

 stalked, consisting of waxy cohering granules. 



GENUS /.— A C E R A S. B. Br. 



Sepals and lateral petals connivent ; labellum turned downwards, 

 not spurred at the base. Anther wholly adnate to the column; its 2 

 cells converging at the base, and each containing a stalked pollen- 

 mass ; caudicules affixed to a common gland included within a pouch. 

 Stigma with a rostellate process extending within the bases of the 

 anther-celb. 



