Proserpina Volume I Part 17

Bra.s.sia.

Caelogyne.

Calopogon.

Corallorrhiza.

Cryptarrhena.

Eulophia.

Gymnadenia.

Microstylis.

Octomeria.

Ornithidium.

Ornithocephalus.

Platanthera.

Pleurothallis.

Pogonia.

Polystachya.

Prescotia.

Renanthera.

Rodriguezia.

Stenorhyncus.

Trizeuxis.

Xylobium.

[52] Compare Chapter V., -- 7.

[53] "Jacinthus Jurae," changed from "Hyacinthus Comosus."

[54]

"Cantando, e scegliendo fior di fiore Onde era picta tutta la sua via."--_Purg._, xxviii. 35.

[55] "[Greek: kai theoisi terpna.]"

[56] The four races of this order are more naturally distinct than botanists have recognized. In Clarissa, the petal is cloven into a fringe at the outer edge; in Lychnis, the petal is terminated in two rounded lobes and the fringe withdrawn to the top of the limb; in Scintilla, the petal is divided into two _sharp_ lobes, without any fringe of the limb; and in Mica, the minute and scarcely visible flowers have simple and far separate petals. The confusion of these four great natural races under the vulgar or accidental botanical names of spittle-plant, sh.o.r.e-plant, sand plant, etc., has become entirely intolerable by any rational student; but the names 'Scintilla,' subst.i.tuted for Stellaria, and 'Mica' for the utterly ridiculous and probably untrue Sagina, connect themselves naturally with Lychnis, in expression of the luminous power of the white and sparkling blossoms.

[57] Clytia will include all the true sun-flowers, and Falconia the hawkweeds; but I have not yet completed the a.n.a.lysis of this vast and complex order, so as to determine the limits of Margarita and Alcestis.

[58] The reader must observe that the positions given in this more developed system to any flower do not interfere with arrangements either formerly or hereafter given for memoria technica. The name of the pea, for instance (alata), is to be learned first among the twelve cinqfoils, p.

214, above; then transferred to its botanical place.

[59] The amphibious habit of this race is to me of more importance than its outlaid structure.

[60] "Arctostaphylos Alpina," I believe; but scarcely recognize the flower in my botanical books.

[61] 'Aurora Regina,' changed from Rhododendron Ferrugineum.

[62] I do not see what this can mean. Primroses and cowslips can't become shrubs; nor can violets, nor daisies, nor any other of our pet meadow flowers.

[63] 'Deserts.' Punas is not in my Spanish dictionary, and the reference to a former note is wrong in my edition of Humboldt, vol. iii., p. 490.

[64] "The Alpine rose of equinoctial America," p. 453.

[65] More literally "persons to whom the care of eggs is entrusted."

[66] A most singular sign of this function is given to the chemistry of the changes, according to a French botanist, to whose carefully and richly ill.u.s.trated volume I shall in future often refer my readers, "Vers l'epoque de la maturite, les fruits _exhalent de l'acide carbonique_. Ils ne presentent plus des lors aucun degagement d'oxygene pendant le jour, et _respirent, pour ainsi dire, a la facon des animaux_."--(Figuier, 'Histoire des Plantes,' p. 182. 8vo. Paris. Hachette. 1874.)

[67] 'Elements of Chemistry,' p. 44. By Edward Turner; edited by Justus Liebig and William Gregory. Taylor and Walton, 1840.