48 GENERAL REMARKS ON THE 



genus, as Richard has already supposed/ or it may possibly 

 be a species of Dacrydiuni ; a conjecture which I have no 

 means of verifying, having never seen the female fructifica- 

 tion of this remarkable plant. 



674] Callitris of Ventenat ^ is peculiar to Terra Australis, 

 where it exists very generally, but most abundantly in the 

 principal parallel; it consists of several species, differing 

 from each other chiefly in the form of their fruit. 



Araucaria excelsa, which was first observed in Norfolk 

 Island and New Caledonia, is found also on the east coast 

 of New Holland, immediately within the tropic ; it is there, 

 however, a tree of very moderate dimensions, and never of 

 that enormous size which it not unfrequently attains in 

 Norfolk Island. 



ORCHIDEyE.^ The Australian species of this order 

 already known amount to 1 20 ; many of these, however, 

 are of very rare occurrence, and none of them appear to be 

 jaroduced in abundance. 



The maximum of the order exists in the principal parallel, 

 a considerable part extends to Van Diemen's Island, and 

 very few have been observed within the tropic. 



The greater part form genera nearly or entirely peculiar 

 to Terra Australis, and most of these genera belong to that 

 division of the order having farinaceous pollen, with an an- 

 thera which is inserted, but not deciduous, and either paral- 

 lel to the stigma or terminating the column. The two sec- 

 tions of this division with parallel and terminal anthera are 

 found in New Holland to pass very gradually into each other, 

 and several genera belonging to the former are, in that coun- 

 try, remarkable for the great expansion of the lateral lobes of 

 the column. These lateral lobes I have considered as bar- 

 ren stamina, which, like those of Philydrum, are occasionally, 

 though indeed very rarely, furnished with rudiments of 

 antherae. This structure, as well as that of Cypripedium, 

 in which the lateral lobes are antheriferous, while the middle 

 is barren, approximates the flower of Orchidese to what 



" Annates da mtis. 16,^. 299. ^ Dec. gen. nov. 10. 



=> Prodr.fl. Nov. EoU. 309. 



