MINUTE STRUCTURE. 57 



Inflorescence. — Every form of inflorescence that occurs in the Orchide^ 

 is also found among the sympodial species. The flowers are solitary 

 throughout Lycaste, Maxillaria, Anguloa, in many Masdevallias, Restrepia, 

 the section Huntleya, Bollea and Warscewiczella, of Zygopetalum and 

 others, on terete smooth peduncles with two or more bracts ; in many 

 Cypripedes on terete hairy uni-bibracteate peduncles. They are in short 

 few-flowered racemes in many genera and sections of genera ; in long 

 many - flowered racemes in Cymbidium, Grammatophyllum, many 

 Odontoglots ; in dense spikes in Arpophyllum, Coelia, Oberonia ; in 

 trailing panicles several feet long in many species of Oncidium ; and 

 every conceivable intermediate form. In Megaclinium (a genus rarely 

 represented in amateurs' collections) the floral axis is flattened into a 

 broad plate ; it is also flattened towards the upper end in Oncidium 

 Pajnlio, and in Phalcenopsis Cornu Cervi. In Oncidium heteranthum, 

 On. dbartivum and probably others, flowers of diff'erent forms occur in 

 the same inflorescence ; * in Catasetum and Cycnoches the flowers 

 are mostly unisexual, the flowers of each sex differing in form and 

 usually produced in different racemes. Many orchid flowers are scentless, 

 but the great majority are more or less odoriferous, the fragance 

 exhaled by very many being of the most agreeable kind, while in others 

 as MasdevaUia Gargantua, M. velifera, many Bulbophyls, and especially 

 B. Beccarii, the foetor is most repulsive. 



MINUTE STRUCTURE. 



In an article published in the G-ardeners' Ghronicle of May 9th^ 

 1 885, Dr. Masters called attention to the relation that subsists between 

 the minute structure of the vegetative organs of plants, especially of 

 the leaves, and their functions, as indicated by Stahl and others, and 

 gave some illustrations selected from some well-known orchids in 

 cultivation. Those illustrations, which are transverse sections of the 

 leaves magnified forty diameters, bear strong evidence of the minute 

 structure being indicative of the conditions under which the plant 

 grows. Admitting the partial and incomplete nature of the examina- 

 tion, it Avas sufficient to enable the observer to state the general 

 conditions as to light and shade and supply of water the plants 

 required, and these conclusions were found on consultation with 

 practical cultivators to be near approximations of the truth in 



Sec p. 40. The two (rarely three or four) lowermost flowers in the racemes of Arachnanthc 

 Lowii are different in form and colour from the others. 



