328 
OKCHiDEiE. (S. Moore.) 
its back, or running down its face, is a single anther (double in a very- 
few genera not Mascarene) bursting longitudinally, or provided with a 
persistent or deciduous lid-like cap ; pollen in 2, 4 or 8, waxy granular 
or pulverulent masses; masses simple or with tail-like prolongations (cau- 
dicles) or with the caudicle tipped with a viscid gland, or sessile on a 
viscid gland. Ovary inferior, more or less cylindrical, usually twisted (so 
that the upper part of the flower becomes the lower), but occasionally 
straight, 1- (very rarely 3-) celled, with 3 parietal placentas, on which 
are borne a vast number of minute ovules ; stigma of 2 viscid lobes 
or a single broad surface variously situated at the front of the column, 
the third lobe modified into a short or long , entire or divided, occa- 
sionally rudimentary structure (rostellum), from the cells composing 
which the viscid gland is often formed. Fruit in the vast majority of 
cases a capsule, splitting into 6 valves, 3 of which bear hair-like tufts 
of minute seeds with a homogeneous embryo. — Perennial herbs, 
either terrestrial and provided with creeping rhizomes, tubers or fibrous 
roots, or growing on trees or rocks, and then usually with green bulb- 
like modified stems (pseudobulbs), and adventitious roots outwardly 
of corky consistence (aerial roots). Flowers solitary or in 
spikes, racemes, or panicles, often large and gaily coloured. Theo- 
retically the Orchidean flower consists of 15 parts in 5 whorls 
of 3 each, of which 2 whorls are perianthial, 2 andrcecial, and 1 gynoe- 
cial ; the sepals form the first whorl, the petals and part ot the 
labellum the second, two members of the third are combined with the 
labellum, while the remaining one is present as the single anther ; the 
fourth whorl is variously conjoined with the column, and the fifth 
appears in the two stigmatic lobes and rostellum. Distrib. Cosmo- 
politan. Species 3000. 
Of the 23 genera mentioned in this Flora, 5 are endemic in the 
Mascarene Archipelago, 3 have eastern connections only, not appearing 
in the African continent, and 1 is in the same condition in a western 
sense. The remaining 14 have both eastern and western connec- 
tions ; the eastern element preponderating in 1 case, the western in 4, 
while 9 are fairly evenly diffused in both directions. 
The following arrangement, a modification of that of Lindley, is 
advocated by Dr. H. Gr. Keichenbach, of Hamburg, the first of living 
authorities on the Order. 
Tribe 1. Opheyde^:. Anther facing or crowning the column, 
its cells bursting longitudinally. Pollen-masses granular. Terres- 
trial herbs. 
Lateral sepals saccate or spurred 1 . Disperis. 
Lateral sepals plane. 
Labellum posticous, 2-spurred 2. Satyrium. 
Labellum anticous. 
Arms of the anther diverging. Stigma at the front of 
the column. 
