EPIDENDRUM CONOPSEUM. 



BARTRAM'S TREE-ORCHIS. 



NATURAL ORDER, O R C H I 1 ) A c I. .K. 



Epidendrum cONOPSEtJM, Aiton. — Scape few to many-flowered; leaves one to three, coria- 

 ceous, lanceolate, acute, spreading ; bracts subulate, the lowest somewhat Icafv ; sepals 

 spatulate, obtuse, with revolute margins; petals linear-spatulate, obtuse ; lip two-tuljcr- 

 cled at the base, threc-lobed, the lateral lobes rounded and crcnulate, the middle one 

 notched at the apex, the claw wholly adnate to the slightly margined column; scape two 

 to eight inches high; leaves one to three inches long; flowers four to five lines long, 

 green, tinged with purple. (Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States. See also 

 Wood's a ass- Book of Botany.) 



HE remarkably curious family of Orchidacca- may be 

 divided into two large classes, — the terrestrial and the 

 epiphytal. The terrestrial Orchids are those which grow on 

 the ground, while the epiphytal species, as the Greek adjective 

 implies, grow upon some other body, and derive their nourish- 

 ment from the air. The Orchids of the latter class, which are 

 also known as " air-plants," are confined to the warmer parts of 

 the earth, while those of the first class extend to the temperate 

 regions, and penetrate even into the Arctic Circle. The terres- 

 trial Orchids are very well represented in our country; but of 

 the " air-plants," only a few species are known here, and these 

 few have been discovered within a comparatively recent time. 

 The subject of the present chapter, EpidcndriDu conopscuni, was 

 the first of its kind found within the limits of the United States, 

 and its discovery is due to William Bartram, the son of John 

 Bartram, the great patriarch of American botanists. William 

 Bartram met with our species in Florida, while on an expedition 

 in search of the natural products of that region, undertaken at 



