NAT. ORDER. 
OrchidecB. 
GENIPA VANILLA. COMMON GENIPA 
Class XX. Gynandria, Order I. Monandria. 
Gen. Char. Corolla, ringent, upper lip vaulted. Lip, dilated, 
with a spur beneath. Pollens, two, terminal, adnate. 
Spe. Char. Lip, obovate, undivided, crenate, retuse. Petals, 
straight, the lateral ones longer. Horn, clavate, shorter than 
the germen. Bracts, longer than the flower. Stem, leafless. 
This most beautiful shruh rises from three to eight feet in 
height, sending off" numerous branches ; the fruit of which very 
much resembles that of the Theohroma cacao, (cocoa-nut,) and is 
oftentimes used for similar purposes. The perianthium is superior 
and ringent ; the sepals are three, usually colored, of which the 
odd one is uppermost, in consequence of a twisting of the ova- 
rium ; the petals are three, usually colored, of which two are 
uppermost, and one, called the lip, undermost; this latter is fre- 
quently lobed, of a different form from the others, and sometimes 
spurred at the base ; the stamens are three, united in a central 
column, the two lateral abortive, the central perfect, or the central 
abortive, and the two lateral perfect ; the anthers are either per- 
sistent, or deciduous, two, or four, or eight-celled ; the pollen is 
powdery, and cohering in definite or indefinite waxy masses, 
either constantly adhering to a gland, or becoming loose in their 
cells ; the ovarium is one-celled, with three parietal placenta ; the 
style forms part of the column of the stamens ; the stigma presents 
a viscid space in front of the column, communicating directly with 
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