Cattley, an early patron of Lindley, was one of the most successful of the early cultivators of epiphytic orchids.
The chief of Lindley's published contributions to the knowledge of orchids, apart from scattered figures and descriptions in the Botanical Register, the Gardeners' Chronicle, Lindley and Paxton's Flower Garden, the Journal of the Linnean Society, and in other serials and periodicals, are to be found in The Genera and Species of Orchidaceous Plants, 1830—1840, in which are described all the species (1980) known of 299 genera; Sertum Orchidaceum (1838); Folia Orchidacea, 1852—1855; and The Vegetable Kingdom.
It is unfortunate that no attempt has as yet been made to catalogue the species described by Lindley; but with regard to genera an approximate list of those proposed by him may be attempted, and is interesting as giving some idea of the extent and value of Lindley's investigations in the group.
In the third edition of The Vegetable Kingdom he estimates the number of orchid genera at 469. Bentham and Hooker (Genera Plantarum, 1883) admit 334, and new genera proposed since that date amount to 125. Pfitzer (Engler and Prantl, Natürlichen Pflanzen-familien, 1889) describes 410.
The following is a list of Lindley's genera, admitted by Bentham and Hooker, in the sequence in which they appear in the Genera Plantarum:
| Physosiphon | Trichosma | Sophronitis | Acincta |
| Brachionidium | Coelogyne | Galeandra | Mormodes |
| Oberonia | Otochilus | Ansellia | Cycnoches |
| Oreorchis | Pholidota | Cremastra | Stenia |
| Sunipia | Lanium | Bromheadia | Clowesia |
| Cirrhopetalum | Diothonea | Govenia | Scuticaria |
| Megaclinium | Hormidium | Grobya | Camaridium |
| Trias | Hexisia | Cheiradenia | Dichaea |
| Drymoda | Pleuranthium | Aganisia | Trichopilia |
| Monomeria | Diacrium | Acacallis | Aspasia |
| Panisea | Ponera | Eriopsis | Cochlioda |
| Acrochaene | Pinelia | Warrea | Dignathe |
| Coelia | Hartwegia | Batemannia | Miltonia |
| Eria | Cattleya | Bifrenaria | Solenidium |
| Phreatia | Laeliopsis | Xylobium | Erycina |
| Chysis | Tetramicra | Lacaena | Abola |
| Anthogonium | Laelia | Lycaste | Trizeuxis |
| Earina | Schomburgkia | Chondrorhyncha | Ada |
