
ee es ee OE | Saenger Nee ee te IFS Se oN 
THE ORCHIDS. 345 
be into green leaves directly ; and, for a general expression, 
we may say that a stamen never turns into a pistil, nor vice 
versa. 
But the Orchids are above the observance of any rule so 
exacting. Ignoring the usual distinctive position of these 
important organs, they constantly place them one upon the 
other, forming a column-like structure, in which the impor- 
tant part of a stamen, the anther, and the necessary part of 
a pistil, the stigma, are both to be distinguished, but nothing 
more. For the rest, you may call it a stamen bearing 
4 pistil or the reverse ; it is either, or neither, as you choose. 
The common, typical structure of the flower in respect of 
these organs, is entirely set aside ; and another and different 
one appears, the presence of which, always constant, is the 
second mark of this strangely beautiful order. 
The third badge is to be found in a circumstance of. great 
significance in connection with those already named, though 
in itself not of much value as a mark. The orchids are all 
Perennials. No annual plant, shooting up under the influence 
of the vernal sun, to perish and pass away when the next 
equinox shall bring the changing season to a less genial tem- 
Per, appears as a member of this privileged and gorgeous 
tace, Let it be for the Asterids, who enjoy being everywhere 
and everything, to revel like May-flies in the’ fléeting hilari- 
lies: of annual life; let the Pisids, who have plenty of trees 
mighty as towers, to spend a fraction of their riches in like 
‘Manner ; but the Orchids will take a middle station, neither 
TE up millions in vast trunks, nor squandering them in 
perishing herbage, planting seed liberally and largely, but 
giving the nursling always that royal blood that shall insure 
* life beyond the brief period of a single spring, and one 
eeding summer. mad 
Or if we esteem this as too common and uncertain for a 
Sure mark of a family like this, we may take -one that od 
— minute, but rather more characteristic. Every Orchid 
“48 a pod for its fruit, with innumerable small seeds within. 
ee NATURALIST, VOL. II. 

