EPIPHYTES AND PARASITES 



with parallel-veined leaves, like the grasses and the palms, after the 

 plants whose leaves have a vascular network. In this instance it 

 would be difficult to disagree with the scientia amabilis of botany, for 

 the most beautiful and wonderful forms of plants are those which 

 conclude the classified system. As Warburg says, reviewing this 

 system in his Pflanzenwelt, no family of plants exhibits such a wealth 

 of interesting vital phenomena as the Orchids, and their blossoms 

 are masterpieces of incomparable delicacy. 



And truly, all those qualities with which a flower can bewitch 

 the human senses have been lavished on the Orchids; we can well 

 understand why there are not only amateurs, but also scientists, 

 who give them their undivided attention. They produce flowers of 

 all sizes, and even whole racemes or panicles of blossom ; there is, for 

 example, a species in Borneo which has trails of blossom more than 

 twelve feet in length. Many Orchids are scented, and as regards 

 their colour we find the most varied mixtures; as for the shape of 

 the flowers, we have here an extraordinary range, passing from the 

 most delicate and decorative beauty (Fig. 14) to the most daring 

 and fantastic forms. In order to find graphic names for such blossoms 

 we have had to borrow comparisons from the animal kingdom, 

 and just as in Europe we have the Bee Orchis, the Bird's-Nest 

 Orchis, and the Spider Orchis, so in the tropics we have the Hooded 

 Dwarf, the Viper's Jaw, etc. But one beautiful Orchid, which is like 

 a white dove — a native of Panama, which has often been praised 

 by the poets — is known as the Espirito santo or "Holy Ghost." 



While as a general thing the flowers turn skywards and let the 

 sun shine into their chalices, the Orchids look straight into our eyes 

 with their enigmatical faces (Fig. 14). Of course they are not really 

 looking at us ; it is the insects which they wish to attract, sending 

 their fragrance abroad on the air, that its winged inhabitants may 

 check their flight and alight upon them. This fragrance is often the 

 only thing that tells the wanderers in the forest that there are Orchids 

 in the neighbourhood. In the forest of Pernambuco the air was often 

 full of the powerful scent of jasmine, but look where I might I could 

 see no trace of Orchids ; they must have been somewhere high in 

 the tree-tops. The surest way of finding Orchids is to look on the 

 ground, for there He the Orchids which have fallen to earth with 

 the rotten boughs on which they were growing. With practice, of 

 course, one may detect them in the trees, but one has not always an 

 Edysio available. (Edysio was the name of the agile student who 

 accompanied me, climbing the trees with the help of the lianas, and 



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