C 152 ] 



Epidendrum Cochleatum. Two-Leav'd 



Epidendrum. 



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Clafs and Order. 

 Gynandria Diandria. 



Generic Character. 

 Neclarium turbinatum, obliquum, reflexum. 



Specific Character and Synonyms. 



EPIDENDRUM cochleatum foliis oblongis geminis glabris 

 ftriatis bulbo innatis, fcapo multifloro, nee- 

 tario cordato. Linn. Syft. Vegetab. ed. 14. 

 Murr. p.Sig. Ait. Hort. Kezv. V.^-p- 3°3' 



HELLEBORINE cochleato flore. Plum. Sp. 9. u. 185.^.2. 



Plants which draw their fupport from other living ones, of 

 which there are numerous inftances, are by Botanifts termed 

 parafitical, and of this kind are moft of the prefent family; de- 

 riving their generic name, which is of Greek extraaion, from 

 growing on trees, into the bark of which they fix their roots; 

 fome of them are alfo found to grow on dead wood, as the 

 prefent plant, which is defcribed by Sir Hans Sloan e, in his 

 hiftory of Jamaica, V. i.p.2 5 o. t. 121./. 2. as not only grow- 

 ing plentifully on trees, but alfo on the palifadoes of St. Jago 

 de la Vega. 



Inftances of thefe plants flowering in England are very rare; 

 Commodore Gardner, in the year 1789, prefented to the 

 Apothecaries company fome roots of this plant, taken up in 

 the woods of Jamaica with great care, and which being fuc- 

 cefsfully treated by Mr. Fairs airn in their garden at Chelfea. 

 one of them threw up a flowering flem laft February, from 

 whence our drawing was made. 



Mr. Fair bairn planted the roots in pots of earth, compofed 

 of rotten wood and decayed leaves, pluncing them into the 

 tan-bed of a pit of confiderable fize. 



In its fruQification, the Epidendrum obvioufly agrees with 

 the Orchis tribe, but differs effentially in the ceconomy of * 

 roots; in the Orchis the roots fpring from the crown of & 

 bub, which is formed in the earth; in the Epidendrum the 

 bulb, or the part which appears to be analogous to a bulb, though 

 ot a green colour, is produced above ground, while the rod* 

 or fibres proceed from below it. 



