40 



PLEUROTHALLIS CILIATA. 



with Pleurothallis picta, Grobyi, and others not yet described. The flowers, 

 though minute, like most of the genus, are pleasing in colour, and by no means 

 void of elegance in their arrangement. When examined with the microscope, the 

 minute fringe-like hairs on the margins of the petals (which are scarcely percep- 

 tible to the unassisted eye) are beautiful objects ; affording an instance (among a 

 thousand others) of the exquisite perfection observable in the form and structure 

 of even the humblest productions of the vegetable world. To discover these 

 hidden beauties, and, in discovering, to admire them, are some of the tranquil but 

 heartfelt pleasures which are exclusively enjoyed by the zealous and patient 

 labourer in the field of Nature. 



The orchidaceous plants figured in the previous numbers have all belonged to 

 the tribe Vandecs, which (as formerly observed) is characterised by a gland and 

 caudicula, in connection with the pollen-masses. In our present plant the pollen- 

 masses are definite in number and waxy in texture, as in the Vandese, but are 

 not provided with a gland or caudicula. Plants with this peculiarity of structure 

 have been placed by Professor Lindley in a tribe which he has named Malaxidece 

 from Malaxis, an European genus, one species of which, Malaxis paludosa, is 

 found in bogs in Cambridgeshire and some few other parts of the kingdom, and 

 which may be regarded as the type of this particular tribe, Malaxidece are 

 subdivided into two sections. 1st. Pleurothallecs, containing about twenty-seven 

 genera agreeing with Pleurothallis in certain important characters, more especially 

 in the shape and direction of the column, which is erect, and but little lengthened 

 at the base. 2nd. Dendrobiece, containing about twenty genera agreeing in 

 certain important characters with Dendrobium, which has the column recumbent 

 on the ovarium, and more or less lengthened at the base. 



The generic name, Pleurothallis, is derived from irkevpa, the side, in allusion 

 to the one-sided arrangement of the flowers ; the Latin adjective ciliata, refers to 

 the ciliated margins of the petals. 



Fig. 1, column; 2, 2, petals ciliated; 3, 3, lateral sepals connate, except at 

 the apex ; 4, lip ; 5, upper sepal. 



