26 ORCHIDS. 



mense size, increasing by the pseudo-bulbs in every di- 

 rection, and often covering a whole tree. In many cases 

 a large tree becomes a large bouquet of Orchids, for 

 many species with various colored curiously shaped flowers 

 are often found on the same tree. 



While all the East Indian Orchids require a hot moist 

 temperature, many of the South American and Mexican 

 species will endure much cold without injury ; they are 

 sometimes found where the mercury at night descends 

 below the freezing point and where the leaves are covered 

 with hoar-frost ; thus the different species demand far dif- 

 ferent treatment, and from an ignorance of these require- 

 ments and peculiarities, have arisen many of the failures 

 which have hitherto attended their culture. 



" A high mean temperature throughout the year, and a 

 climate either constantly humid, or at least, periodically 

 so, are atmospheric elements eminently favorable to the 

 production of these plants. All those species which 

 simply exist by clinging by their roots to the branches of 

 growing trees, and probably other species, must derive 

 necessarily their nourishment in a great measure, if not 

 entirely, from the moisture in a very elastic state that 

 surrounds them. And, although nature seems in general 

 to have provided for the scantiness of their food, by the 

 construction of them with a cuticle only capable of part- 

 ing by slow degrees with the fluid they receive by their 

 roots, yet it is obviously requisite that they should be so 

 situated as to be within reach of an abundant supply, 

 not only at the time when they are growing, but to a cer- 

 tain extent at other periods. Thus we find that the hot- 

 test countries if dry, and the dampest if cold, are des- 

 titute of them, while there is no instance of a country 



