Page:On the Various Contrivances by Which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects, and on the Good Effects of Intercrossing.djvu/45

 repeatedly large spikes of Catasetum, a Mormodes of extreme value to me, and some Dendrobiums. Mr. Rodgers of Sevenoaks has given me interesting information. Mr. Bateman, so well known for his magnificent work on Orchids, sent me a number of interesting forms, including the wonderful Angraecum sesquipedale.

I am greatly indebted to Mr. Turnbull of Down for allowing me the free use of his hot-houses, and for giving me some interesting Orchids; and to his gardener, Mr. Horwood, for his aid in some of my observations. Professor Oliver has kindly aided me with his large stores of knowledge, and has called my attention to several papers. Lastly, Dr. Lindley has sent me fresh and dried specimens, and has in the kindest manner helped me in various ways.

To all these gentlemen I can only express my cordial thanks for their unwearied and generous kindness.

EPIDENDREÆ In the arrangement given by Lindley in that invaluable work the Vegetable Kingdom, we first meet with the two great tribes of the Malaxeæ and Epidendreæ. They are characterised by the pollen-grains cohering into large waxy masses, not congenitally attached to the rostellum. In the Malaxeæ (of which one British form has been described) the pollinia properly have no caudicle; whereas, in the Epidendreæ (of which tribe no British representative exists), they have an unattached caudicle.

For my purpose these two tribed might have been run together; and as the pollinia of some of the Malaxeæ have a minute but perfectly efficient caudicle, the division between them, in their leading character, blends away. But this is a misfortune which every naturalist encounters in attempting to clarify a largely-developed or so-called natural group, in which, relatively to other groups, there has been little extinction. In order that the naturalist may be enabled to give precise and clear definitions of his divisions, whole ranks of intermediate or gradational forms must have been utterly swept away: if here and there a member of the intermediate ranks has escaped annihilation, it puts an effectual bar to any absolute distinct definition.