NATURE AND HABITS OF ORCHIDS. 2$ 



Orchids are chiefly found on the borders of the forests 

 or in the open glades or savannas ; it is seldom they are 

 met with in the primitive forests. 



They are very abundant in Brazil, near Rio Janeiro, in 

 Mexico, in Colombia, in Trinidad, especially in moun- 

 tainous places and damp woods. In the East Indies, in 

 Java, Ceylon, Nepaul, and China, where they are princi- 

 pally found in the woods, on the borders of rivers and 

 mountain streams. The localities of Orchids are very 

 marked ; of some species only a single habitat is known ; 

 many are exceedingly rare, some only being known to 

 botany by a single dried specimen in a herbarium, and 

 others once known in our hot-houses are now lost to cul- 

 tivation ; some species now in cultivation have sprung 

 from a single imported plant. The Orchids of the East- 

 ern and Western hemispheres are entirely different, there 

 being no affinity between them. Orchids are also most 

 capricious in their locations j sometimes a river may be 

 ascended for miles and not an Orchid be seen, when on a 

 sudden turn of the stream every tree becomes covered 

 with them. The part of the tree on which they live is 

 also uncertain ; some are found close to the ground, 

 others a few feet high, others on the forks of the trunk 

 and branches, some only on the trunk, others only on 

 the branches, and many only on the topmost branches 

 of the loftiest trees, so high that they are only discover- 

 able by their delicious perfume. 



Some varieties will only thrive when grown on the lower 

 side of a block, their native growth being on the under 

 side of a branch. Of these the fine yellow Cattleya (C. 

 citrind) is our most familiar example. 



Where they find a congenial home, they grow to im- 



