70 BRITISH HONDURAS. 



trees are the peculiar long, insect-like tresses of Cycnoches Egerto- 

 nianum. On a calabash-tree near Orange Walk (Old Eiver), 

 masses of a small Oncidium (not more than 2 inches in height, 

 with flowers fully an inch in diameter) were found covering the 

 branches and giving the tree quite a bright yellow tint. On 

 trunks of trees in the river below the Big Falls, a fine plant of 

 Oncidium cebollda was found, as also 0. lanceanum, in full flower. 

 In the pine-ridges the terrestrial Habenaria and Stenorrhynchus 

 were common. 



From the abundant shade found in the cohune-ridges, as 

 also from the abundance of water and moisture in the air and 

 soil generally, it may be readily supposed that ferns are very 

 widely and extensively distributed. There would appear to be 

 only one species of tree-fern (Alsophila), and that chiefly 

 confined to the south ; but in such genera as Asplenium, 

 Aspidium, Nephrodium, Polypodium, Acrostwhum, Cheilanthes, 

 Pellcea, Pteris, Anemia, and Adiantum, there are numerous and 

 widely-distributed species. Of scandent forms, such as Lygo- 

 dium, there are two or more species found hanging in festoons 

 over trees on the borders of the forest. Gleichenias cover 

 exposed banks and ridges; anemias are abundant on rocky 

 ledges ; while several handsome species of Adiantum (A. tene- 

 rum, A. tetrapkyllum, &c.) are found in the limestone hills of 

 the interior. With the latter, in deep shade, is Selaginella 

 erythropus, carpeting the ground with its feathery, fan-shaped 

 fronds. 



It would be impossible to describe satisfactorily the rich 

 profusion and abundance of plant life as seen in the Central 

 American forests. Each tree, with its huge branches covered with 

 orchids and bromeliads, and its trunk festooned with climbing 

 aroids and tresses of ferns and club-mosses, is a botanic garden 

 in itself. Tall, slender palm-stems, " great broad-leaved heli- 



