336 
Group 11. oBpnanDro^ff* 
Essential Character. — Stamens and style consolidated into a central column. 
Flowers complete, formed upon a ternary plan. Ovary always inferior, usually 1 -celled, 
with scobiform seeds. 
The greatest exception to the character of this group, — indeed the only one 
worth naming, — occurs in Apostasiacese, which have not only a trilocular ovary, 
but separate stamens. Here then we find, in a very large assemblage of other- 
wise unvarying plants, a direct case of transition to Haemodoracese or Ama- 
ryllidaceae. This instance is a useful hint to those who believe that any order 
exists in which the limits are absolutely defined. I have no doubt that time 
will discover Compositae, Cinchonaceae, Stellatae, and Umbelliferae with superior 
fruit, and that other orders will have their characters equally broken down. 
Regular flowered Orchidaceae, such as Thelymitra, approach Liliaceae, and 
the ordinary structure of the order approaches very much to that of Gladiolus 
among Iridaceae. 
Order CCXLIII. ORCHIDACEAE. The Orchis Tribe. 
Orchides, Juss. Gen. 64. (1789). — Orchide^, R. Brown Prodr. 309. (1810) ; Rich, in 
Mem. Mus. 4. 23. (1818) ; Lindl. Synops. 256. (1829) ; Id. Genera and Species of 
Orch. (1830) ; R. Brown Observations on the Sexual Organs, S^c. of Orchidece and 
Asclepiadece (1831). 
Essential Character. — Perianth superior, ringent. Sepals 3, usually coloured, of 
which the odd one is uppermost in consequence of a twisting of the ovary. Petals 3, 2 
sometimes absent, usually coloured, of which 2 are uppermost in consequence of the twist- 
ing of the ovary, and 1, called the lip, undermost; this latter is frequently lobed, of a dif- 
ferent form from the others, and very often spurred at the base. Stamens 3, united in a cen- 
tral column, the 2 lateral abortive, the central perfect, or the central abortive, and the 2 
lateral perfect ; anther either persistent or deciduous, 2- or 4- or 8-celled; pollen tiXhex 
powdery, or cohering in definite or indefinite waxy masses, either constantly adhering to a 
gland or becoming loose in their cells. Ovary 1 -celled, with 3 parietal placentae; style 
forming part of the column of the stamens ; stigma a viscid space in front of the column, 
communicating directly wdth the ovary by a distinct open canal. Impregnation taking 
effect by absorption from the pollen masses through the gland into the stigmatic canal. 
Capsule inferior, bursting with 3 valves and 3 ribs. Seeds parietal, very numerous ; testa 
loose, reticulated, contracted at each end ; albumen none ; embryo a solid, undivided, fleshy 
mass. — Herbaceous plants, either destitute of a stem, or forming a kind of above-ground 
tuber (pseudo-bulb) by the cohesion of the bases of the leaves, or truly caulescent. Roots 
in the herbaceous species fleshy, divided or undivided, or fasciculate ; in the caulescent 
species tortuous, and green and proceeding from the stem. Leaves simple, quite entire, 
often articulated with the stem. Pubescence rare; when present, sometimes glandular. 
Flowers in terminal or radical spikes, racemes, or panicles ; sometimes sohtary. 
Affinities. It is not necessary to enter, in this place, into an historical 
inquiry as to the gradual alteration that has taken place in the views of bota- 
nists with regard to the structure of the sexual apparatus of these most cu- 
rious plants, or to explain what degree of error existed in the description of 
those who mistook masses of pollen for anthers, or a column of stamens for a 
style ; such errors could only have occurred at a period when the laws of orga- 
nisation were totally unknown. They have been corrected, in a more or 
less perfect manner, by various writers ; most completely by Brown in his 
Prodromus, published in 1810, and subsequently by the late most accurate and 
indefatigable Richard. ^ But long before the publication of any rational expla- 
nation of the structure of the Orchis tribe, while botanists were in utter dark- 
ness upon the subject, it had been most fully investigated by a gentleman un- 
