I N D E X TO THE PLATES.
B A R K E E I A , G A L E A N D R A ,
LINDLEYANA . ¡28 BAUERI 1!)
SPCCTABILIS 33
L 7 E L I A ,
B R A S A V O L A , AUTUMN ALIS !)
23
GLAUCA . 38
. 16
SUPERBI ENS
B R A S S I A , M A X I L L A R I A ,
VEMICOSA . 22
SKINNERI . 35
C A T A S E T U M , M O R M O D E S ,
MACUKTUM . 2 PARDINA . li
C A T T L E Y A , O D O N T O G L O S S U M ,
SKINIIERI . 13 GRANDE
LIASTATUM
. 21.
20
C H Y S I S ,
LOSM . 31 O N C I D I UM,
CAVENDISHIANUM 8
C O R Y A N T H E S , INCUR\-UM . 2D
SPECIOSA, tar. . 36 INSLEAYII
LEUCOCHILUM
21
C Y C N O C H E S , ORNITLIORBYNICHUM 4
VENTRICOSUM S WENTWORTHIANUM . . 3!)
EGERTONIANUM 4-0
P E R I S T E R I A ,
C Y R T O C H I L U M , BARKEN . 8
BI CTONIENSE 6 S H O - M B U R G K I A ,
E P I D E N D R U M ,
TIBICINIS . 30
ALATIMI 18 S O B R A L T A ,
ALOIFOLIUM . . 25 DECORA . 26
AURANTIACUM 12 INACRANTHA 37
AROMATICUIN . 10
ERUBESCENS 32 S T A N H O P E A ,
MACROCHILUIN . 17 MARCIANA 2 -
POLYANTHUNI 34 SACCATA . 15
STAMFORDIANUM . 11 TIGRI NU
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
F EW fTciieral remarks on tlie extensive lamily of Ovcliidacea*, will, perhaps, hesl introduce
whnt we are about to say respectiug lliat section ol" tlie tribe, to whicli this Worii is more
iminediutely devoted; aud, in the liasty (ibservatious which follow, we shall abslaiii, as uiucli iu
possible, from all details of a purely scientific nature, as an opportunity of treating more fully
cm that branch <if our subject will occur towards the close of our Work. Although the great
extent of the species of this order was not oven suspccted (ill within tiie hist few years, am!
though the rage for their introduction is of still more recent diile, yet there were some among the
earlier liotanisls. on whom their charms would not appear (o have been lost; especially, the great RuMi'fiius in the Old
World, and Meksanuev. in the New. In the Herbarium Amhoinense of the former, his chapter oti the " Angraicums"
(so he designates the whole tribe) opens with the following passage, which we ([uote for the edification of our readers:
—" Now," he exclaims, "now come wc to describe a noble family of plants, wliich is remarkable for huviug always its
dwelling aloft upon the branches of other trees, mid which scorns the lowly ground ;—like the seats uud castles of (he
great, wliich are usuiUly built in elevated situations And, as nobility is distinguished by its appropriate and
dignified attire, so this tribe of plants htts a towering mode of growth, <[uile peculiar to itself."* This eloc|uen(
eulogiuui will suffice to prove, tliat the eastern Orchidacea; were not without admirers, even in those barbarous times;
and their brethren of the We s t seem to have been equally fortunate, as one of their tribe received attcnticms of the
most marked description from the "Pl i n y of New Spain," (as Hernandez hiis been .styled), who, not content with
using it to decorate almost every page ol" his work, ventured to dedicate it, as the loveliest plant of the Mexican
Flora, to the Lj-ncean Academicians of Rome, by whom it was immediately adopted, as the peculiar emblem of
their learned body.f
Pi.t'MiEK was another botanist, who paid his court to this tribe in an especial manner; and his figures of some of
the West Indian species are models of accuracy and beauty, even at the present day. Witli these and other examples
before us, it will appear surprising that Lixn^eus should only have been acquainted with one hundred species, of which
all those which grew upon trees (making, perhaps, a fourdi of the whole) he thrust into his genus Epidendruni. What
would be the astonishment of that "father of Botany," could he now but behold his lonely "Epideudnini" multiplied
into two hundred genera! and liis one hundred Orchidaceaj increased to two thousand!! J Nay, what if he were
assiu'ed, that our knowledge of the tribe was only in its iiifavcy, and that, in all probability, not one half of the
species had been hitherto discovered!!!
'nic initi/il letter u romica by die ant
niounlcil by a raiiilHiw. under wlilcli in seen llic
could find none wliich bcgon «iih that letter; «
I of liberty••) a
• " rroijVr« dutrxitmui
. The RTO rioi\nliiin5 donalo the live inouiitunom •
rap of liberty." We Imd IntrndL-d the device to hnvo «rveii fo
nto which that kingdom >• divided ; tliey art tur-
0 ;" but, when we canig to collect out ideas, va
to make il stand for ou " A"-for «lilch, fcrtunntcly oticiigh, Il <loa «[ually ^rell. ll.e iai«c arms
so of 01.1 FroutUploee, i>t the top of whleli ore plnccd an Engle nnd Cactus, Ilio .inn. of Mesi«. Tlie orooiiieiit^ «hloh
iiuik« tip the rrsl of llie ilevicc, arc taken from Mtiicivn inonuinenls, in Iho Britùh Museum, or from ill« splendid work of Lord Kingsbury : we must ««epl, liowcrer, the
Bower, »hich i> seen in iho centre of a ^uars comptirtmeut on either sid« ; this i. tho colcbralcd " Hor Jc /.in« " of t lEiti-Aicoe», frati, »h«o work il is Uonowcd. Tliat
^tl.. BiiASt.»iin, «ho liastlw intril of lining dnitni tit« design, has accoinpll.hcd his task with tidniirable .kill, no one, we Inai, wiU be disposed to deny.
yiitf to ¡tu Hltlmouil, ywi itmp'f in odo MUal. in aliu nrapt arianim, ac ip<n<U /.umUi tolam, vii
til nihm ac luilimcm mntnili haiewil «orfon <ic /oraam, uli tl «oiriWai moifcrni. ««c rfi/lf/iyaiV, «
n by this quotation, is by u I Cicei it easy
i I'his is the " Klos Lyucco," so named by itj
1)0 Uie I-Iiibleiii of tlio lyuMan .Icademy. lUus
has, "c billeve, been recently im|>orted. A grsotl
nl, Uecomc it wns spotted like o /.yni ,• and i
: he Uoiirfshixl in 1830. Ills favourite plant
obsorv'cd In our iVontispiece.
a inuidato li
ondly, becauso it was dciigncd to
u, probably, a,i Anguloa, and it
iv has already described upwards of a tliousond in his Malaiidrir, Epidmdrra, and Vatalca, to which a tiipplemeiit of five
hew, there arc the Ophryiitr, wliieh will ccmprehond at koit ftvo hundred more.