IN FLORIDA 73 



out of those fleshy, often unsightly leaves is a strange pleasure, a 

 spur to the fancy which is surely wholesome, if we will but believe 

 that all these things were invented by A Fancy, which desires 

 to call out in us, by contemplating them, such small fancy as we 

 possess." 



It is only when seen growing on the trees in tropical or semi- 

 tropical forests that they really look natural, for there they fully 

 harmonize with the magnificent tangled growth, the confusion of 

 struggling lianas and the veritable air gardens of wild Tillandsias 

 and other epiphytes which sometimes load down the limbs to 

 the breaking point. It is in such environment alone that one 

 can appreciate their weird and almost unearthly grotesqueness 

 and beauty; it is there that their brilliant and fantastic blossoms 

 shine out almost like stars in the darkness. 



