358 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



the plant sits, but never reach the earth. The 

 sunshine, the heavy dew, the occasional shower, 

 and the balmy air, are all their dietary. There 

 are, it is true, a number of terrestrial orchids, 

 and they, as other plants, derive a part of their 

 carbon from the carbonic acid of the soil. In 

 addition to the orchids, the extraordinary plant 

 called the " stag's horn " fern, is almost exclu- 

 sively nourished upon the air. This plant is also 

 to be seen at Kew, where in one of the tropical 

 stoves it will be found growing upon a piece of 

 wood ! Its great leaves, in shape resembling 

 antlers, hang down in a singular manner } and 

 the whole plant presents us with a remarkable 

 instance of a vegetable deriving little or nothing 

 from the substance on which it grows, and yet 

 flourishing in the greatest luxuriance upon a diet 

 of water and air ! 



These plants are not strictly parasites, for 

 they do not live upon the natural juices of the 

 branches on which they grow ; therefore their 

 carbon could not have been derived from the 

 boughs on which they rest. The question may 

 then be put, If they do not derive their carbon 

 from the air, from whence do they obtain 

 it? Nor are orchids and these curious ferns 

 solitary in this property of living in the air 

 alone, for several other plants have the same 

 faculty. The conclusion therefore cannot be 

 resisted, that the air is the principal, if not 



