M EPIPHYTES. 



thrir natural situation being in forests, or among the branches of 

 growing treat. In Bruit numbers of them occupy damp woods and 

 rich valleys, among regulation of the moat luxuriant description, by 

 which they are embowered. Reinwardt describes others as inhabiting 

 in great abundance those deep shady gloomy forests which form the 

 lower cone of vegetation in Java, where the air is heavy and damp 

 with Tapours that cannot ascend, and where the thickness of the 

 vegetation is really frightful ; where, in short, heat, moisture, and a 

 oat extraordinarily deep and rich vegetable soil combine to produce 

 wood of a fungus-like softness and an inconceivable abundance of 

 Twining Plants and Epiphytes. In those forests more especially 

 where huge fig-trees constitute the principal part of the timber, 

 intermingled with the most tropical forms of vegetation, such as 

 Sereuliaear, Sapindatta, and Arlocarpacea, tufts of Orchidaceous 

 PlanU abound, in company with Aracea, Acanthacta, and Zinyi- 



Ott itCCtt* 



In Nepaul Dr. Wallich states that Orchidaceous 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 

 Ortkidacett 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. It would however be 

 a great error to suppose that it is only in very shady places that 

 Orchidaceous Epiphytes appear. On the contrary, it is probable that 

 the eases just cited are extreme, and that they more commonly prefer 

 situations where the broken rays of the sun can readily reach them. 

 Mr. John Henchman states (' Gardeners' Mag.,' ii. 139) that he has 

 observed in Demerara " That Orchidatecc appear to rejoice in a light 

 situation and a free circulation of the atmosphere ; but are decidedly 

 adverse, with few exceptions, to exposure to the intense rays of the 

 sun. We may except from this remark Oncidium luriilum, the 

 Catasetums, and a fine pseudo-bulb found on the Spanish Main (which 

 I suppose to be an Ei>idendrum\ which seem not only to exist, but to 

 rejoice, in exposure to the sun." Mr. Batoman also found, from the 

 report of his collector, Colley, that the situations in which they are 

 most usually seen are those parts of a forest where old and broken 

 wood occurs, or on the skirts of savannas. These savannas are large 

 open breaks in the woods, covered with fine white sand, which has 

 at night the appearance of snow. They contain also many low and 

 stunted bushes. The Orchidacea seem to like an airy and exposed 

 dwelling-place ; being found on the more prominent parts of a tree, 

 and not in the shade, as is generally supposed. Mr. Colley only found 

 in one instance an Orchidaceous Plant in the heart of a forest, and 

 this was growing on the prostrate trunk of a tree so rotten as to fall 

 to pieces when pressed with the foot. (' Oard. Mag.,' ii. 4.) 



This quite corresponds with the statements of travellers in Brazil, 

 who speak of their occuring most abundantly in open glades of the 

 forests, and on the faces of naked rocks, or on shaded banks, although 

 they are also met with "in sombre glades whore heated vapours are 

 incessantly circulating." 



Where the climate suits them, they are sometimes prodigiously 

 numerous. Descourtilz, in his manuscripts, speaks of a whole tree 

 being overrun with a single species ; and Henchman also assures us that 

 in Demerara masses of Oncidium altutimvm and Marillaria Parl-en 

 are to be seen, which would defy any attempt at intrusion ; on the 

 Spanish Main he saw the Epiphyte commonly called the Spread 

 Eagle, clasping enormous trees, and covering them from top to bot- 

 tom ; and he also met with two or three species, supposed to be 

 Maxillariax, which were growing with uncommon vigour. " But," he 

 adds, " with the above exceptions, I have not found Orchidasccc grow 

 ing in such quantities as it has been reported they do ; often, as Mr 

 Batetnan justly observes, single specimens only are to be obtained 

 This cannot be more strongly illustrated than in the case of a beauti 

 fill OncidHtm, which I was happy enough to meet with on the Spanish 

 Main ; iU leaves are nearly six inches in width, of a very firm tex 

 tore, and powesaing an uncommonly strong nerve ; and though the 

 plant, judging from the remains of the original stem, which ha< 

 gradually decayed as the plant progressed, must have occupied its 

 station for nearly half a century, yet I searched the neighbourhood 

 in vain for another specimen, nor did I see another plant of it on th. 



EPIPHYTES. 



68i 



This altogether corresponds with what we know of such plants in 

 other countries, and with the general habit of the whole order, which 

 is extremely local in the majority of cases. Upon comparing the 

 Orchidaceous PlanU of Java, of Ceylon, and of the Birmese country 

 it is quite extraordinary bow few species those countries poraess in 

 common ; and the quantities of species found exclusively In every 

 large collection are a oorroboration of the same fact. Mr. Bateman 

 assure* us that in Guyana " a river may be ascended for twenty miles 

 without an Orchidaceous Plant being seen ; while, on a sudden tun 

 of the stream, every tree becomes covered with them : yet they do 

 not appear to have a favourite aspect ; for on some of the rivers 

 which Mr. Colley visited he found them exclusively on the northern 

 exposure, while on others Ihey occupied the southern." The part o 

 the tree on which they are principally found is as uncertain as thei 

 station. It is said that they love the loftiest branches, and are hardly 

 found near the bottom, and M. Descourtilz confirms this sUtemen 

 by describing some of them M twinging in the air from the top o 



he old patriarchs of the forest, or exposed to all the violence of 



terms in the most exposed situations. But Mr. Henchman assert* 



hat in Demerara at least they " do not grow in such high situations 



upon trees as is generally supposed. Twenty or twenty-five feet is 



he greatest height, with few exceptions, at which I have seen them 



rowing. Some of the bulbleaa Epidendrums, the Spread-Eagle Plant, 



and Onriilium papilio, attain a much greater height The other < in 



idiums I have not seen growing above seven feet or eight feet from the 



ground, and generally on some of the small closely interwoven branches, 



and not on the stem or main branches of the tree. The various 



species of Qongora, Coryantha, and Kodriffueaa, are, almost without 



exception, found in the same position ; while, again, the genera 



Ifcuittaria, Prrnandtsia, Epidendrum, Cfratochitiu, Cattleya, Zyyu/ir- 



alon, Braaavola, Ornithiditim, Camaridiu.ni Plturothalli, Srattia, 



OrnilHocephalut, Trizeturii, Catatdum, and many other genera supposed 



to be new, I have found always attached to the trunk or strong limbs 



of the tree, which they clasp with surprising tenacity. It may be 



also observed that rough and soft barked trees are favourite habitats 



of Orchidacea. The Calabash-Tree, which has a peculiarly soft and 



woolly bark, often possesses many of the more minute species. 



Indeed, I sent home pieces of the Calabash-Tree, about a foot long, 



on some of which were six and on others seven distinct species of 



Orchidacea." 



A high mean temperature throughout the year, and a climate either 

 constantly humid or at least periodically HO, are also atmospheric 

 elements eminently favourable to the production of these plants. All 

 ;hosc species which simply exist clinging by their roots to the branches 

 of growing trees, and probably others also, must necessarily derive 

 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 

 tood by the construction of them with a cuticle only capable of parting 

 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 also at all other times to a certain extent Hence we 

 find that the hottest countries if dry, and the dampest if cold, aro 

 destitute of them ; while there is no instance of a country both hot 

 and damp in which they are not plentiful. For example, in Africa 

 they are unknown in its sandy deserts and parched atmosphere, 

 notwithstanding the high temperature of that part of the world; 

 yet they abound in Sierra Leone, where the climate is damp ; and 

 even at the Cape of Good Hope they occur not unsparingly in all that 

 jungly district to the eastward of the Cape Town to which the name 

 of Outniqualand is applied. 



In the West India Islands they exist in great quantities, particularly 

 in Jamaica and Trinidad ; not however so much on the coast as upon 

 the lower ranges of hills. This is in conformity with their habits 

 elsewhere : in these islands the air of the level of the sea is dry, while 

 that of the mountains is humid. Captain Sabine found the air of the 

 level of the sea at Trinidad indicate 5 of dryncss, and that of Jamaica 

 7; while the atmosphere was saturated with humidity in the tirst 

 of these islands at 1060 feet above the level of the sea, and in I lie 

 second at an elevation of 4080 feet At Rio Janeiro the mean 

 temperature is 74 8', and much higher inland ; the woods ore so 

 damp that it is difficult to dry plants ; and in such situations multi- 

 tudes of Orchidaceous Epiphytes spring up. But in the immediate 

 vicinity of Buenos Ayrcs, where the mean temperature is 67 6' and 

 the air dry, they are unknown ; and in the high dry land of Mendoza, 

 where the aridity is still greater, the whole order disappears, with the 

 exception of a single species. On the west coast of South America, 

 as high as Lower Peru, Orchidaceous Epiphytes are unknown; a 

 circumstance which is not surprising when we consider the effect of 

 the currents setting round Cape Horn, which bring the mean tempe- 

 rature of even Lower Peru itself down to 60 at night, and how arid 

 the whole of that region is with the exception of a few valleys. No 

 country however exhibits in a more striking manner than India the 

 necessity of a hot and damp climate for the production of Orchidaceous 

 Epiphytes. In the Malayan Archipelago, the mean temperature of 

 whii-U is estimated at between 77 and 78 and is very damp, they are 

 found in profusion. In Nepaul it is upon the sides of the lower 

 mountains that they occur, where they vegetate amongst clouds and 

 constant showers ; while on the continent of India they are almost 

 unknown, their place being occupied by parasitical Loranthi. The 

 traveller finds himself in the morning on the dry plains of Hindustan, 

 where the mean temperature is 80, and where all the trees are 

 destitute of OrcMdacat ; and at noon he is at the foot of the first 

 range of the Nepaulese hills, where every tree teems with that class 

 of plants. There are however places on UK i-cmtiiie.iit of India where 

 they are not less numerous than in Nepaul ; at the actuaries of the 

 Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Irawaddi, and the rivers of Martaban, 

 they exist in vast quantities ; but all these stations are excessively 

 damp. In the Botanic Garden at Calcutta they grow most vigorously 

 during the rainy season, but in the fiercely hot season, which begins 

 in March and lasts till the 10th of June, they perish notwithstanding 

 all the care they receive. Madagascar and Mauritius offer similar 

 evidence to the same effect 

 While however these statements are applicable to a very large 



