Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/880

816 R C -0 R C in Florence. They have been published by Trucchi (Pocsie incdite, ii. p. 25, Prato, 1846). They are graceful in language, but rather artificial and over-elaborated. ORCHESTRA. See Music, supra, p. 98. ORCHHA, or TEHEI, a native state in Bundelkhand, Central India, lies between 24 26 and 25 34 N. lat., and between 78 28 30" and 79 23 E. long., to the south of the British district of Jhansi. The area is about 2000 square miles; the population in 1881 was 311,514. A great portion of the area is covered with hill jungle and poor soil, and is thinly peopled. The present capital, Tehri, situated in the south-west corner of the state, is a poor ill- built town, the only good house being the palace of the raja. Orchh4 is the oldest and highest in rank of all the BundeU principalities, and was the only one not held in subjection by the peshwa. The chief received the title of maharajci in 1865. ORCHIDS. The word Orchis is used in a special sense to denote a particular genus of the Orchid family (Orchidaceae) ; very frequently, also, it is employed in a more general way to indicate any member of that large and very interesting group. It will be convenient here to use the word Orchis as applying to that particular genus which gives its name to the order or family, and to employ the term "orchid " in the less precise sense. The flowers of all orchids, though extremely diverse within certain limits, and although superficially very dif ferent from those of other monocotyledons, are all formed upon one common plan, which is only a modification of that observable in such flowers as those of the narcissus or snowdrop (Galanthus}. The conformation of those flowers consists essentially in the presence of a six-parted perianth, the three outer segments of which correspond to a calyx, the three inner ones to a corolla. These segments spring apparently from the top of the ovary, the real explanation, however, being that the end of the flower-stalk or "thalamus," as it grows, becomes dilated into a sort of cup or tube enclosing and indeed closely adhering to the ovary, so that the latter organ appears to be beneath the perianth instead of above it as in a lily, an appearance which has given origin to the term "inferior ovary." Within the perianth, and springing from its sides, or apparently from the top of the ovary, are six stamens Fig. 2, Fio. 1. Diagram of the flower of Orchis, s, si, si, the three divisions of the outer perianth ; pi, pi, the two lateral divisions of the inner perianth ; ps, the superior division or the labellum, which may become inferior by the twisting of the ovary ; e, the fertile stamen, with its two pollen-masses in the anther -lobes; c, the one -celled ovary cut transversely, having three parietal placentas. Fio. 2. Flower of an Orchid, s, s, s, the three outer divisions of the perianth ; p, p, I, the three inner, I being the labellum, here inferior by the twisting of the ovary ; , spur of the labellum ; o, the twisted ovary ; st, the stigma ; a, the anther, containing pollen-masses. whose anthers contain pulverulent pollen -grains. These stamens encircle a style which is the upward continuation of the ovary, and which shows at its free end traces of the three originally separate but now blended carpels of which the ovary consists. An orchid flower (disregarding for 3. Fig. 4. Fio. 3. Upper part of an Orchid flower. The outer divisions of the perianth are seen, and two of the inner, the third or labellum being removed. The two anther lobes are seen with pollen-masses attached to the upper part of the stigma by viscid matter, re. FIG. 4. Pollen-masses of an Orchid, with their caudicles and common gland. the moment a very small number of exceptions) has an inferior ovary like that just described, but with the ovules on the walls of the cavity (not in its axis or centre), a six-parted perianth, a stamen or stamens, and a style or styles. The main distinguishing features consist in the fact that one of the inner pieces of the perianth becomes in course of its growth much larger than the rest, and usually different in colour, texture, and form. So different is it that it receives a distinct name, that of the " lip " or " labellum." In place of the six stamens we commonly find but one (two in Cypripedium and that one is inseparably blended with the style to form the "column," bringing about the> condition technically called " gynandrous." Moreover, the pollen, instead of consisting of separate cells or grains, consists of cells aggregated into "pollen- masses," the number varying in different genera, but very generally two, four, or eight, and in many of the genera provided at the base with a strap-shaped stalk or "caudicle" ending in a flattish gland or "viscid disk" like a boy s sucker. The style has very generally at its upper part a peculiar pouch-like process called the "rostellum," in which the viscid disk of the pollen -masses is concealed till released in the manner presently to be mentioned. It would appear, then, that the orchid flower differs from the type in the irregularity of the perianth, in the suppression of five out of six stamens and of two out of three styles^ and in the union into one column of the one stamen and the one style which remain in the adult flower. In addition to these modifications, which are common to nearly all orchids, there are others generally but not so universally met with ; among them is the displacement of the flower arising from the twisting of the inferior ovary, in conse quence of which the flower is so completely turned round that the " lip," which originates in that part of the flower, conventionally called the posterior or superior part, or that nearest to the supporting stem, becomes in course of growth turned to the anterior or lower part of the flower nearest to the bract, from whose axil it arises. Other common modifications arise from the union of certain parts of the perianth to each other, and from the inordinate outgrowths from the lip. These statements are borne out by evidence derived from a variety of sources, such as that afforded by the pro gressive development of the parts of the flower from their earliest to their most complete condition, by the anatomy or internal organization of the parts of the flower, by the number and distribution of the vascular bundles which run through the cellular tissue, by the comparative morphology of the floral organs of the different genera of the order, and by teratology, or the study of unusual or monstrous forma-