F L O R A O F T A S M A N I A .
PRINTED BÎ
JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LnTLE QUEEN STREET,
C l a s s M O N O C O T Y L E D O N E S .
N a t . O b d . I. ORCHIDEÆ.
Os* of tho most beautiful and interestiug Natural Orders of Australia, abundant iu the extratropical
latitudes of that continent, and cspcciallj in Tasmania, but extremely rare in the tropical. The great majority
are terrestrial and tuberous-rooted, but there are a few epipbytical ones, all belonging to the tribe
Vande«,, on the warm and tropical eastern coasts, and one inhabits Tasmania which has been found nowhere
else. About 200 Australian Orcliiieæ are known, which are, with few exceptions, endemic. The
exceptions are S fim n tlm am tm lk (S. Noraj-Zelandim, .» « ) , found in New Zealand, India, and other
countries; a also found in New Zealand, where a Tasmanian species a Tkdt,m,tra and of
Caladenm probably also occur, but these liaTe not been satisfactorily identifled. Considerably more than
half the Australian Orchids, about 120 species, are confiued to the east coast and Tasmania, about 60
being confined to the western, and 15 or 20 are common to the south-eastern and south-western quarters
of the continent. Tasmania contains 74 species, all but 8 of which have heen found on the neighbouring
continent, though of these some are peculiar to it and south-western Australia.
The difSculties attending the analysis and discrimination of the plants of this Natural Order are proverbially
great, and the Tasmanian Orchids have proved proportionally more troublesome than any other
Natural Order, partly from Mr. Brown having found few of them iu Tasmania, and partly from Gunn's
splendid series of specimens being accompanied by fewer remarks than usual.
On the other hand I have derived the greatest assistance from Mr. Archer’s drawings, notes, and
specimens, as well as from his intimate acquaintance with the living plants; his beautiful drawings and
dissections are, with Ins kind permission, and at his expense, lithographed tor this Work by Mr. Pilch;
and I can only add, that but tor his having afforded me the beueflt of his accurate knowledge of the
species, I should in several cases have failed to discriminate them aright, and in other cases, where I had
properly discriminated, to have selected their most important diagnostic characters.
I am also greatly obliged to Dr. Bindley for his ever ready advice and assistance, and for the use of
his Herbarium, containing aU of Gunn’s collections that were published in his valuable 'Genera and
Species of Orcliideæ.'