510 Baicma}is Orchidacece. 



its dwelling aloft upon the branches of other trees, and which 

 scorns the lowly "round : like the seats and castles of the fjreat, 

 which are usually built in elevated situations And, as no- 

 bility is distinguished by its appropriate and dignified attire, so 

 this tribe of plants has a towering mode of growth, quite pe- 

 culiar to itself." Hernandez, " the Plin}' of New Spain," who 

 flourihhed in 1G50, dedicated one of the Orchidaceoe, as the love- 

 liest plant of the Mexican flora, to the Lyncean Academicians of 

 Rome; by whom it was immediately adopted as the peculiar 

 emblem of their learned body. This Fior de Lince of Hernan- 

 dez, ^Ir. Bateman thinks, v.as probably an anguloa; a genus 

 which has been only recently introduced into Britain. Plumier 

 paid great attention to the Orchidaceae, and published good 

 figures of many of the species. Linnaeus was acquainted with 

 100 species; a fourth part of which, as they grew upon trees, he 

 included in his genus Epidendiuni. " What would be the 

 astonishment of that father of botany," exclaims Mr. Bateman, 

 "could he now but behold his lovely epidendrum multiplied into 

 200 genera ! and his 100 Orchidaceae increased to 2000 ! Na}', 

 what if he were assured that even our knowledge of the tribe 

 was only in its infancy ; and that, in all probability, not one half 

 liad been hitherto discovered ! Dr. Lindley has already described 

 upwards of 1000 in his Malaxideae, Epidendreas, and Vandea^, 

 to which a supplement of 500 might now be added ; and, 

 besides these, there are the Ophrydeae, which will comprehend at 

 least 500 more." 



" Asia, Africa, and America will, perhaps, be found to divide the species of 

 the order amongst them into tliree nearly equal proportions (for the few 

 which Europe produces need scarcely be taken into the account) ; and the 

 closer we approach the tropics, the more numerous and beautiful they be- 

 come. Arrived, at length, within tlie precincts of the torrid zone, we find 

 them no longer ' prone on the ground,' as heretofore, but conspicuous on 

 the branches of the most rugged trees of the dampest and wildest forests, 

 attracting the eye of the naturalist from afar, by the dazzling brilliancy of their 

 colours, or arresting his attention by their delicious fragrance. And here we 

 must take occasion to observe, that, although plants of this description are 

 not unfrcquently termed ' parasitic,' the epithet is altogether misapplied ; for, 

 while the parasites prey upon the vital juices of their victims, and perisii with 

 them, the ' epiphytes ' derive notiiing but their stay, or local habitation, from 

 the plants on which they have established themselves; and continue to flou- 

 rish and flower, indifferent whether their supporters live or die. The great 

 majority of the Orchidaceae of the tropics belong to the latter, or epiphytic, 

 class ; tiiere are, however, a few that do not, as was long ago obsorveil by 

 the same ingenious Rumphius to whom we have already had occasion to ad- 

 vert. After noticing, in terms of due commendation, the dignified habits of 

 most of the tribe, he proceeds, with a sigh, to remark that, ' among these 

 vegetable nobles, just as among the nobles of mankind, some degenerate indi- 

 viduals are ever to be found, who are on the ground always, and seem to 

 constitute a class of their own.' But it is not merely in their habits that the 

 terrestrial species are placed below the epiphytes, they are also greatly inferior 

 to them in singularity and beauty. 



