MORPHOLOGY OF ORCHID FLOWERS. 



25 



The coluinii also varies considerably in form, but except in 

 Cypripediuiu the deviations from the general type arise chiefly from 

 the enlargement or diminution of the various parts. In Miltonia the 

 column is very short and the wings much reduced ; in Oncidium it 

 is also short but much swollen below the stigmatic hollow, and 

 furnished Avith an ear-like appendage on each side of it, characters 

 that chiefly distinguish Oncidium from the allied genera ; in 

 Odoutoglossum it is much lunger, more slender, and not swollen 



Odontoglossuin Harryanum. 

 With fringed crest. 



below the stigma as in Oncidium, wingless in most of the ^[exican 

 species, but in others more usually winged, the wings often much 

 lacerated, and some species as Oilmtoglossum cirrosnm and Od. ocloratum 

 prolonged into tendril-like cirri. Prolongation of the column at its 

 apex occurs in OdontrM/Iossum citrosmum, many Oncids, and throughout 

 Trichopilia ; and in other genera the appendage takes the form of 

 a hood, whence the column is said to be hooded or cucnllate. In 

 Rodriguezia decora the apical prolongation takes the form of two 



