Xll INTRODUCTION. 



climates, where they suspend their graceful clusters 

 above the head of the admiring traveller ; some 

 mantle the trunks of prostrate trees, while a few trail 

 over mossy rocks, and a few others venture even to 

 crags close to the shore. The height above the sea 

 at which some of them occur is almost incredible ; 

 Oncidium nubigenum, for instance, is found in Peru at 

 an altitude of 14,000 feet, and Epidendrwn frigidum 

 where trees are unknown, and where snow is familiar. 



" No single country is Orchidaceous par excellence. 

 Wherever heat and moisture are abundant, whether 

 it be in Asia, Africa, or America, there they exist in 

 profusion ; the principal stations being the forests of 

 Peru and Brazil, the lower mountains of Mexico, the 

 West Indies, Madagascar and the adjacent islands, 

 the damp jungles of Nepaul and Burmah, and the 

 whole of the Indian Archipelago, especially New 

 Guinea and Java. In Java alone, there have already 

 been found not less than three hundred species. 



" Sierra Leone and the torrid countries watered by 

 the Niger, likewise teem with these brilliant epi- 

 phytes, showing how vast is the wealth yet to be 

 gathered. ' Such is their number and variety,' 

 Humboldt tells us, ' in the valleys of the Peruvian 

 Andes, that the entire life of a painter would be too 

 short to delineate all the magnificent forms which 

 adorn those deep recesses/ Contrariwise, in regions 

 where the heat is accompanied by great permanent 

 dryness, such as the sandy wastes of Arabia and 

 Africa, Orchids are nearly absent. Orchids, in a 



