104 OKNERAT, IIKVIEW OF TIIK OT^CIIIT^E.T:. 



CLASSIFICATION. 



In the early part of the century the Okchide.i: were studied by 

 several eoiiueut botanists^ including Oloff Swartz, one of the 

 immediate successors of Linnasus in the Chair of Botany at Upsal, 

 L. C. Richard, Dupetit-Thouars, Dr. Ro])ert Brown, C. L. Blume 

 and others, all of whom have left special treatises on them.* It 

 was especially the observations of Robert Brown backed by the 

 excellent drawings of Francis Bauer which induced Lindley to devote 

 himself to the order of which he became the great master. It was 

 Robert Brown too, as Mr. 13eiitliara justly observes,! who first 

 established the principles of the classification of the Orchide.e on a 

 solid basis, and on this basis as materials came to hand Lindley 

 worked out, chiefly in the Jhtanical Rcgider which he edited for 

 many years, the systematic arrangement of the species which has 

 supplied the foundation of every subseijueut classification. The results 

 of his labours are summarised in his Genera mid Speciex of Orchid- 

 aceous riants, the first portion of which appeared iu 18y0, the 

 remaining parts being afterwaids published at greater or less intervals, 

 the concluding one being issued iu 1840. Between 1852 and 1859 

 Lindley revised and re-systematised many of the genera, incorporating 

 in them the accumulated fresh material, consisting of a vast number 

 of new orchids of every description that had been discovered in 

 the interval. These revised genera were published from time to time 

 under the name of Folia ( >rc]tidacea. 



Dr Lindley^s system is thus summarised in the introduction to his 

 Genera and Species of Orchidaceous J'/ants. 

 I. — Anther one only. (Monandr.i:). 



A. — Pollen masses waxy. 



Tribe 1. — Malaxide.e. No caudicle or separable stigmatic gland. 

 Tribe 2. — Epidendre-K. A distinct caudicle but no separable 



stigmatic gland. 

 Tribe 3. — Vande.e. A distinct caudicle united to a deciduous 

 stigmatic gland. 



" See Literature of the Orchide^:, infra. ] 



t Jouru. Linn. Soc. XVI IL p. 282. 'j 



i 



