23 
upon a sombre ground. In the midst of airy garlands of 
Aristolochias, Bignonias, Convolvuluses, and Passion-flowers 
live the Orchidacez, each particular species of which seems 
to haunt its own peculiar plant. Thus the Epidendrum of the 
Cinchona refuses to live in the branches of the Lecythis and 
Couratari, notwithstanding that the seeds of these epiphytes 
are scattered indiscriminately by the wind. Other tribes 
again are always from free Orchidacex, as the huge trunks 
of Malvaceous trees, Isoras, Carolineas, Plantains, and Palms. 
It is chiefly at the time of flowering that Orchidacee 
become remarkable in their native haunts, and then less 
for the diversity of their forms, or the gaudiness of their 
colours, than for the exquisite perfume which most of them 
exhale. It is thus that I have often been led to the disco- 
very of charming species, lurking amidst the foliage, and 
which my eye would never have detected. 
Changes of seasons are announced with the greatest regu- 
larity by the Orchidaceous epiphytes, many of which expand 
their blossoms amidst hurricanes and torrents of rain which 
deluge the earth at certain seasons; but seem struck with 
torpor when the sky recovers its serenity. 
HORSE CHESNUTS POISONOUS. 
It is not often that facts in natural history can be gleaned 
from novels; the following note however, furnished by Dr. 
Bird, upon the /Esculus Ohiotensis figured in this work, 
plate 51, for the year 1838, is so remarkable that it deserves 
to be brought under the notice of naturalists ; the more espe- 
cially because it affords an additional reason for recombining 
the natural order ZEsculacex with the often poisonous Sapin- 
dacez. | : 
* The Buck-eye, or American Horse Chesnut, seems to 
be universally considered in the West a mortal poison; both 
fruit and leaves. Cattle affected by it, are said to play many 
remarkable anties, as if intoxicated, turning, twisting, and 
rolling about and around, until death closes their agonies."— 
Nick of the Wood, vol. 1. p. 225. Engl. ed. 
Pinetum Woburnense, or a Catalogue of the Coniferous Plants in the col- 
lection of the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey, systematically 
arranged. 1839. 
Under the modest title of ** Catalogue" this work, of 
which only 100 copies have been printed for private distri- 
