43 
no less luxuriant leaves and flowers. Of these the different 
species of air-plants and Tillandsias were most remarkable.— 
The first were no less singular than beautiful; they attach 
themselves to the dryest and most sapless surface, and bloom 
as if issuing from the richest soils. A specimen of one of 
these, which I thought curious, I threw into my portmanteau, 
where it was forgotten ; and some months after, in unfolding 
some linen, I was astonished to find a rich scarlet flower, of 
the gynandrous class, in full blow; it had not only lived, but 
vegetated and blossomed, though so long secluded from air, 
light, and humidity. Every withered tree here was covered 
with them, bearing flowers of all hues, from the brightest 
yellow to the deepest scarlet. They are easily propagated by 
transplanting; and my good friend, Col. Cunningham, had 
all the trees in his garden at Boto Fogo covered with them. 
The Tillandsia is not less extraordinary.—It also grows on 
sapless trees, and never on the ground. lts seeds are fur- 
nished, on the crown, with a long filmy fibre, like the thread 
of a gossamer. As they ripen, they are detached, and driven 
with the wind, having the long thread streaming behind 
them. When they meet with the obstruction of a withered 
branch, the thread is caught, and revolving round, the seed 
at length comes into fixed contact with the surface, where it 
soon vegetates, and supplies the naked arm with a new fo- 
liage. Here it grows, like the common plant of a pine apple, 
and shoots from its centre a long spike of bright scarlet blos- 
soms. In some species (Tillandsia utriculata, and lingulata) 
the leaves are protuberant below, and form vessels like 
pitchers, which catch and retain the rain water, furnishing 
cool and limpid draughts to the heated traveller, in elevations 
where no water is to be found. The quantity of fluid con- 
tained in these reservoirs is sometimes very considerable ; and 
in attempting to reach the flower stem, I have been often 
drenched by upsetting the plant."— Walsh’s Notices of Brazil, 
2nd vol. page 306. 
56. DENDROBIUM Paztoni; caulibus teretibus sulcatis, foliis ovato-lan- 
ceolatis acuminatis apice hinc obsoleté emarginatis, pedunculis bifloris, sepa- 
fis oblongis acutis lateralibus basi parüm productis, petalis. latioribus obo- 
vatis acutis serrulatis, labello unguieulato ovato concavo indiviso villoso 
margine multifido fimbriato. 
This beautiful new Dendrobium has orange-yellow 
F. June, 1839. 9 
