280 RELATION BETWEEN CLIMATE AND VEGETATION 



Orchids, but with the exception of the beautiful little So- 

 phronitis grandiflora, nothing new to me occurred among them. 

 Several large plants of Oncidium divaricatum, a Maxillaria, 

 and some small Epidendrums, were also found in flower. It was 

 here that I first met with the lovely Luxemburgia ciliosa, 

 a fine shrub producing large corymbs of lemon-coloured flowers. 

 This I afterwards introduced to England, where it has flowered, 

 both at Glasgow and Kew. On this hill I observed two species 

 of Bamboo, different from the large one in the woods below, 

 both being much smaller, but neither of them were in flower. 

 The getting through these was one of the most difficult parts of 

 the journey. 



The first night was spent by the side of a little stream 

 at the foot of the steep ascent, a beautiful spot, and one near 

 which I found many fine plants. The first that attracted my 

 attention was what I then imagined to be a fine individual 

 of Epiphyllum truncatum, in full flower, hanging from the 

 trunic of a large tree that was bent over the stream. As I 

 wanted to add a few specimens of it to my collection, I soon 

 managed to put myself in possession of the whole plant, when, 

 to my surprise and delight, I found it to be a new species. I 

 have named it E. Russellianum, in honour of his Grace the late 

 Duke of Bedford ; and living plants which I then sent home are 

 now in the gardens of England ; but nowhere have I seen it 

 well-grown. It will most assuredly never succeed in the dry 

 heat in which the mass of the Cactus tribe grows so well. In its 

 native country it grows in a much cooler region than its con- 

 gener, E. truncatum. During my several journeys to and from 

 the upper parts of the range, I always found the latter species 

 confined to the dense virgin forests below the elevation of 4500 

 feet ; while, from that point to upwards of 6000 feet, tlie former 

 alone was always seen, either attaching itself to the stems of trees, or 

 to the faces of shaded rocks, and flowering when the thermometer 

 falls sometimes at daybreak to 42°. Further up the stream, by 

 the side of a small waterfall, and on a moist slanting bank near 

 it grew great quantities of a fine, large, dark, red flowered Ama- 

 ryUid (^Hippeastrum Organense, Herb.), which, from roots then 

 collected, I was the first to introduce to England. By the side 

 of the fall there were some bushes of a large-flowered species of 

 Pleroma, the branches of which were festooned with the climb- 

 ing Fuclisia, covered with its crimson flowers, a red-flowered 

 Esterhazia, and a large-leaved species of Clusia (^C.fragrans, 

 Gardn.), which loaded the atmosphere with the powerful odour 

 of its large white blossoms. Beneath these grew the Amaryllid, 

 a large entire-leaved Eryngium, several Bromeliads, and nu- 

 merous herbaceous Ferns. On a shelving granite rock above 



