240 EXTRACTS. 



that Orchideous epiphytes grow in company with ferns ; and the thicker the 

 forest, the more stately the trees, the richer and blacker the natural soil, the 

 more profuse the Orchidese and ferns upon them. There they flourish by the 

 sides of dripping springs, in deep shady recesses, in inconceivable quantity, 

 and with an astonishing degree of luxuriance. 



" In the Botanic Garden at Calcutta it is found that they thrive best under 

 the shade of trees with dense but airy foliage, such as mimosas, especially the 

 Acacia stipulata, the huge stem of which is the more remarkable when com- 

 pared with the myriads of minute leaflets by which it is formed. 



"High temperature and excessive humidity are together the other conditions 

 essential to the well-being of these plants. The hottest countrii's, if dry, and 

 the dampest, if cool, are destitute of them; while there is no instance of a 

 country, both hot and damp, in which they do not swarm. This can readily 

 be shown." 



They are most abundant, in India, in the Malayan Archipelago, the mean 

 temperature of which is between 77" and 78'*; and the air is damp to satura- 

 tion. In Nipal they are only found upon the sides of the lower mountains, 

 where they vegetate among clouds and constant showers. On the continent of 

 India they are almost unknown ; because there, though the mean temperature 

 is SO'', the air is dry. In the Calcutta Garden, they grow vigorously in the 

 rainy season, and perish in the hot season. In the hot humid climate of the 

 Isle of France and Madagascar, they exist in vast quantities. Ju Africa they 

 are rare, except at Sierra Leone, where the air is moist as well as hot ; at the 

 Cape they are wholly unknown. 



" In America, their favourite station, according to Hdmboldt, is in the 

 gorges of the Andes of Mexico, new Granada, Quito, and Peru, where the air 

 is mild and humid, and the mean temperature 63° to 67" Fahr. (17° to 19" 

 cent.) In these localities they are so abundant, that, according to the authors 

 of the Flura Periiviuna, above 1000 species might be found in Tarma, Huanuco, 

 and Xanxa alone. They are not seen farther north than Florida, where a 

 single species, Epidendrnm conopseum, is found on the Magn61i«; but it is 

 well known that the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico, and the effects of the Gulf 

 Stream, give the vegetation of Florida a tropical rather than extra-tropical 

 appearance. In that country this solitary representation of tropical Orchideae 

 exists in the same region as myriads of Tillands(« «s«eijides, which usually 

 vegetates beneath the influence of the dampest tropical atmosphere." 



In the West Indian Islands, particularly Jamaica and Trinidad, and on the 

 lower ranges of hills more especially, they are abundant. At Rio Janeiro, 

 where the woods are so damp that it is difficult to dry plants, orchideous 

 epiphytes are found in inconceivable multitudes; but at Buenos Ayres, where 

 the air is dry, they are unknown. In the high dry land of Mendoza, the 

 aridity is still greater; and there the whole order of orchideous epiphytes 

 almost entirely disappears. On the west coast of South America, they are 

 unknown as high as Lower Peru; the whole of that region being extremely 

 arid, with the exception of a few valleys. There are two species of Orchidea; 

 found in the Mexican Andes, which are exceptions to the general conditions 

 for the growth of the order; two species in Japan, which will grow in a low 

 temperature ; and some in New Holland, which thrive in a mean heat of 

 66«^ 6:—IIort. Soc. Trans. 



0)1 Raising JVative Hyacinths. By Mr. Ryan, Gardener to 

 Samuel White, Esq. M.P. 



I have been very successful in raising Hyacinths from offsets. I find the 

 plants which have flowered in glasses or pots produce better offsets than those 

 raised in beds; these, together with the mother and now reduced bull), I plant 

 at the usual season; the old bulb affords considerable nourishment to the 

 young plants, which rise with great strength the following spring. When the 

 leaves assume a yellow hue, the plants are to be taken up aud replanted the 



