V 
The inflorescence is in all cases either terminal or axillary ; but 
it often seems not to be so. Thus in some of the genus Dendrobium 
the flowers appear in racemes springing from the back of the leaves at 
the base; in this case the inflorescence pierces through the sheath ot 
the leaf, which is pressed so close to the stem that there is no room lor 
the flowers to develope in the ordinary way. In other instances the flowers 
are described as radical; they are, however, in all such cases formed 
in the axil of a scale or leaf stationed near the root. When, as in 
Cycnoches, Catasetum sometimes, and others of like nature, the flowers 
spring from the naked sides of the stem, they are not the less axillary on 
that account, but merely appear after the fall of the leaves to which 
they belong. It is frequently the nature of these plants to direct their 
flower-stems downwards, so that if planted in the ground they bury their 
flowers in the earth; this arises from their being naturally inhabitants 
of the branches of trees, from which their flowers hang down freely in 
the air. 
Their floral envelopes are constructed irregularly upon a ter¬ 
nary type, and consist of three exterior and three interior pieces. 
The exterior pieces are usually nearly equal, and less brightly 
coloured than the interior ; but the two lateral ones are often of a some¬ 
what different form from the other, which is anterior as the flower is 
placed upon the inflorescence when young, but which often becomes 
posterior when the flower is expanded, in consequence of the flower- 
stalk being twisted, or curved; these parts are occasionally united by their 
edges into a long tube, as in Masdevallia, or the lateral ones adhere to 
the unguis of the lip in various degrees, or two of them are consolidated 
into one, as in Corycium and many others. Occasionally the interme¬ 
diate piece is prolonged at the back or base into one or two hollow spurs, 
as in the genera Satyrium and Disa; still more rarely the lateral pieces 
are also spurred, as in Disperis. Various other less important modifi¬ 
cations of the exterior pieces occur, but in all cases the whole number 
three is present. 
The interior pieces are usually three, never more; but in the in¬ 
stances of Monomeria and Aviceps the intermediate one only is present. 
