ORCHIDACE^. 501 



cohering into 1 or 2 pairs of oblong or glohular jyoUen-masses, 

 tapering at one end into a point. Ovary inferior, 1-celled, 

 with 3 parietal placentas. Capsule 3-valved, with innumerable 

 minute seeds, resembling fine sawdust. 



A very extensive Order, spread over all parts of the globe. Our own 

 species, and generally those of temperate regions, are terrestrial, but a large 

 proportion of the tropical ones are epiphytes, growing upon the stems and 

 branches of trees, but without penetrating into their tissue. Numbers of 

 these are now becoming well known, having been of late years extensively 

 cultivated in ovir hothouses for tl\e singularity of the forms assumed by the 

 flowers, as weU as for the great beauty of some of them. The genera are 

 distinguished chiefly by the form and relative arrangement of the anther-cells, 

 the pollen-masses, and the stigma, and the shape and direction of the lip, 

 characters which, however essential, are in many cases as difficult to describe 

 clearly as to observe accurately, especially in dried specimens. For the be- 

 ginner, therefore, I have endeavoured in the following table to select such 

 prominent features as may guide liim to the British species, independently 

 of the more accurate technical characters, which may be reserved for sub- 

 sequent study. 



Plants \vithout any leaves, except short scales. 

 Lip with a spur underneath. Flowers few, rather large ... 8. Epipogium:. 

 Lip without a spur. Flowers small. 



Plant green. Flowers white, in a spirally-twisted spike . . 9. SpiKANTH. 

 Plant and flowers brown or yellowish-white. Flowers in a 

 raceme. 



Lip entire, not so long as the sepals 3. Coraleoot. 



Lip 2-cleft, longer than the sepals 7. Neottia. 



Plant with 1, 2, or more green leaves. 



Perianth with a spur or pouch at the base of the lip .... 11. Orchis (ajjtZ 

 Perianth without any spur or pouch.* 12. Habenabia.) 



Lip hanging f longer than the sepals, very narrow or divided into 

 nan'ow lobes. Flowers yellowish-green. 

 Stem with 2 opposite, broad leaves. Flowers pedicellate. 



Kootstock fibrous 6. Listera. 



Stem leafy atthe base. Flowers sessile. Rootstock tuberous. 



Sepals arching over the column. Lobes of the lip linear 13. Acekas. 



Sepals spreacUug. Lobes of the lip oblong 15. Opukys. 



Lip hanging, very convex or large, brown or spotted. 

 Flowers 1 or 2 only, very large. Lip inflated, above an inch 



long 16. Cypkipede. 



Flowers several. Lip convex, not above half an inch long . 15. Ophbys. 

 Lip erect or spreading, not longer than the sepals, concave or 

 flat. 

 Flowers rather large, in a loose, leafy spike. Stem leafy, 

 usually a foot high or more. 



Flowers pedicellate, drooping 4. Epipactis. 



Flowers sessile, erect 5. Cephalantheba. 



Flowers small (white or greenish-yellow). Stem seldom 

 above 6 inches high. 

 Flowers pedicellate, erect. Stem bulbous at the base. 



Sepals broad-lanceolate, about 1 line long 1. Malaxis. 



Sepals narrow-linear, full 2 Unes long 2. Lipaeis. 



Flowers sessile, horizontal or drooping. Stem not bulbous. 

 Flowers greenish -yellow, aU round the spike. Kootstock 



tuberous 14. Hebminivm. 



Flowers greenish-white. Spike one-sided, straight. 



Rootstock creeping, fibrous 10. Goodyeba. 



Flowers white. Spike one-sided, spiral. Rootstock 



almost tuberous 9. Spiranth. 



* A single specimen has been occasionally found of species of Orchis and Habenaria, in 

 wMch the flowers are all deformed, without any spur, but such instances are very rare. 



