Entitled: "Epidendrum vitellinum majus" taken from "Les orchid矇es" by Paul Emile de Puydt, published 1880. Paul ?mile de Puydt (March 6, 1810 - May 20, 1891) was a Belgian writer whose contributions included work in botany and economics. As a botanist, he notably wrote on orchids. The standard botanical author abbreviation De Puydt is applied to species he described. Epidendrum is a large neotropical genus of the orchid family. With more than 1,100 species, some authors describe it as a mega-genus. Orchidaceae is a diverse and widespread family of flowering plants with blooms that are often colorful and often fragrant, commonly known as the orchid family. All orchids are perennial herbs that lack any permanent woody structure. Orchids are easily distinguished from other plants, as they share some very evident shared derived characteristics. Among these are: bilateral symmetry of the flower (zygomorphism), many resupinate flowers, a nearly always highly modified petal, fused stamens and carpels, and extremely small seeds.