&3 4. 13 



SUB-TRIBE DENDROBIE^E. 



Inflorescence lateral, pseudo-terminal, or a leafless scape distinct from 

 the leaf-bearing stems. Column more or less produced beyond the point 

 of attachment to the ovary into a kind of foot. Polllnia 4 (rarely 2), 

 equal and parallel, in one row, and without caudicle. 



DENDROBIUxM. 



bo 



Swartz in K. Vet. Acad. Stockh. Nya. Hand. XXI. p. 244 (1800). Benth. et Hook. Gen. 

 Plant III. p. 498 (1883). 



The great genus Dendrobium unquestionably occupies the first rank 



^ among the epiphytal Orchidere of the Old World in the estimation 



^of the horticulturist and amateur, not only on account of the large 



number of its contained species, but chiefly by reason of the gorgeous 



oo colouring of the flowers of many of them, aud the great delicacy and 



\ beauty of the tiuts of others. As a genus, the Dendrobes of the 



-; Old World are, in many respects, analogous to the Epidendra of 



2 the New ; the one may, in fact, be regarded as the representative 



■ )of the other in the immense regions over which they are spread. 



Each genus includes several hundreds of species and varieties, amongst 



which there is a surprising diversity of habit, size of plant, colour 



of flower, etc. In both genera are found plants with dwarf-tufted 



X pseudo-bulbs only an inch or two high producing racemes of flowers 



~ proportionately small, and others with rod-like stems upwards of 10 



feet high that yield racemes of flowers whose number in the aggre- 



^-gate amounts to hundreds; between these extremes there is almost 



'every possible gradation as to size. In both are found flowers of 



^ small size and of the most inattractive tints, and others of grand 



•^ proportions adorned with the richest hues known. But amidst all this 



^diversity, the flowers of all the included species in each genus possess 



a community of structure which proclaims their affinity and which 



mpels the botanist to recognise in them a family connection that 



cannot be severed, in spite of the diversity of form seen in their 



organs of vegetation and in their inflorescence. 



