VII. 



INTERDEPENDENCE OF PLANTS AND 

 ANIMALS. 



ONE day in passing along a creek, we had an 

 experience which set us a-thinking. We were 

 collecting orchids, and up in a tree overhanging 

 the water was lodged a great clump of Oncidium 

 altissimum, its long graceful flower-stems loaded 

 with yellow butterfly-like blossoms hanging over 

 in every direction. It was a magnificent plant, 

 fully four feet thick, with panicles rising to a 

 height of twelve feet. It is needless to say that 

 we wanted it for our collection, and that we sent 

 one of our boatmen to fetch it down as carefully 

 as possible. This, however, was easier said than 

 done, for, first it was attached to the tree, then it 

 was threaded, as it were, with a number of bush- 

 ropes, and finally more or less entangled in a 

 crowd of branches. Taking a cutlass, the negro 



climbed up to its level and began to chop at the 



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