43 



no less luxuriant leaves and flowers. Of these tlie different 

 species of air-plants and Tillandsias were most remarkable. — 

 The first were no less singular than beautiful ; they attach 

 themselves to the dry est and most sapless surface, and bloom 

 as if issuing from the richest soils. A specimen of one of 

 these, which 1 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. Its 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 flind con- 

 tained in these reservoirs is sometimes very considerable ; and 

 in attempting to reach the flower stem, 1 have been often 

 drenched by upsetting the plant." — Walsh's Notices of Brazily 

 2nd vol. page 306. 



56. DENDROBIUM Puxtoni ; caulibus teretibus sulcatis, foliis ovato-lan- 

 ceolatis acuminatis apice hinc obsolete cmarginatis, pechinculis bifloris, sepa- 

 lis oblongis acutis lateralibus basi pariW productls, pctalis latioribus obo- 

 vatis acutis serrulatis, labello uiiguiculato ovato concavo indiviso vllloso 

 margine multifido fimbriato. 



This beautiful new Dendrobium has orange-yellow 

 F. Jmic, 1839. g 



