ORCHIDS. 
Probably no one except a few professional botanists knows 
that there are at present no less than twenty-two species of native, 
epiphytic Orchids known in the State of Florida. Some of these 
are beautiful while all are strange and interesting. Nearly all of 
these are natives of the West Indies or Tropical America, and it 
is probable that they were introduced, for the most part, into 
South Florida during late geological time by birds, winds, and, 
it may be, on floating vegetation carried on the Gulf Stream. 
There are nine species of Epidendrum known in the state, 
most of which have no beauty, as the Epidendrums are called 
the weeds among Orchids. However, E. cochleatum has odd 
purple and yellow flowers that remind one a little of those of a 
pansy. £. nocturnum has spidery white blossoms and E. tam- 
pense has really pretty flowers of purple, greenish and white 
with sometimes yellowish or chocolate tints. 
Cyrtopodium punctatum is a noble Orchid, sometimes forming 
immense clumps, the stems and numerous rather large flowers 
being greenish yellow barred with brown red; a large plant may 
carry as many as 300 blossoms atatime. ‘There are three species 
of the genus Dendrophylax in lower Florida, one of which, D. 
lindent, with leafless stems and handsome, large, satiny blossoms, 
usually grows on the trunks of royal palms. Oncidium luridum 
is a magnificent Orchid with large, thick leaves, and stems of 
flowers which sometimes reach a length of ten feet. The color 
of the blossoms is lurid, greenish yellow barred and blotched with 
red orred brown. O. sphacellatum is an epiphytal Orchid in Cuba 
but here it is more or less terrestrial, growing on pine land in the 
edges of swamps or rarely in hammocks. The flowers are yellow 
and quite attractive. Besides the above there is a Macradenia, 
an Ionopsis, a Polystachya and a Brassia, the latter only just dis- 
covered in ourregion. This strange plant, B. caudata, is a native 
of Cuba and has curious spider-like greenish yellow blossoms. 
We have two Vanillas which climb trees by means of aerial roots 
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