331 



ORDER CLXVIII. ORCHIDACEJE. 



Perennial herbs growing on trunks of trees, rocks and 

 stones, as well as in the earth : roots fibrous, fascicled, fleshy 

 or tubercle-shaped: stems none, either elongated annual, or 

 more frequently perennial woody, forming a rhizome or jointed 

 sheathed branches : leaves almost always sheathing, sometimes 

 articulated with the stalk, membranaceous, coriaceous, terete, 

 even hard and plaited, always undivided, sometimes rough 

 with small cartilaginous teeth, paralled veined, never serrated : 

 flowers hermaphrodite, irregular, very various in shape, spiked 

 or racemose, seldom solitary, sometimes racemosely panicled, 

 always supported by a solitary bract : perianth herbaceous or 

 petaloid, membranaceous or fleshy, closed or reflexed, persistent 

 and withering or articulated with the ovary and deciduous : 

 parts arranged in a double row, free or -cohering in various 

 ways, frequently resupinate by the twisting of the ovary: 

 sepals 3, either equal at the base, or variously prolonged and 

 expanded,' two lateral anterior by the twisting of the ovary, 

 the third dorsal next to the axis, rarely surrounded by a 

 calyx: petals usually 3, very rarely 1, placed between the 

 sepals, larger or smaller: lateral ones usually resembling the 

 dorsal sepal, seldom altogether different in form: third posticous, 

 but very often standing in front by the twisting of the ovary, 

 polymorphous, called the hp, usually larger than the rest and 

 the form altogether different, sometimes produced at the base 

 into a spur, or affecting a horn with the foot of the column 

 and prolonged bases of the lateral sepals, sometimes altogether 

 connate with the column, undivided or 3-lobed, sometimes 

 increased by a fleshy appendage rising from the stigma, column 

 consisting of the stamens aiid style consolidated into a solid 

 body, the latter being next the Up, the former near the dorsal 

 sepaJ : stamens 3, opposite the sepals, central one only bearing 

 anthers, except in Cypripedium, when the central is abortive, 

 and the two lateral ones perfect : anthers 1 — 2-celled, cells 

 separated by 2 — 4-partitions, erect at the summit of the 

 column, or turned downwards, or at the back: pollen powdery 

 or granular, or cohering in wedges bound by some elastic 



