196 IN THE GUIANA FOREST. 



age asking the question, " Shall we develop our- 

 selves to fight the enemy, or get out of the way ? '' 

 As gentlemen they chose the latter course, with 

 the result that their progress has been towards 

 greater perfection in form and colour, to the ex- 

 clusion of everything hard and disagreeable. Their 

 enemy, on the contrary, has gone on with his 

 bullying, until now he is often clothed with spines, 

 and perhaps as disagreeable, to our sense of 

 beauty, as the orchid is harmonious. 



There, on the side of a branch, is a fine clump 

 of Brassia Lawrenceana, its spikes of yellow flowers 

 dotted with crimson arching gracefully over, and 

 apparently quite content to grow sideways. Like 

 many other orchids of the same habit, however, 

 the Brassias are not only able to grow upright as 

 well as inclined, but also to bear crowding. This 

 is not the case with its neighbour, the Stanhopea 

 eburnea, which, sitting a little below, pushes its 

 two or three handsome, waxy-white flowers from 

 below the pseudo-bulbs outwards and downwards. 

 Although the plant itself is almost upright, its 

 short flower-stems could not reach the light with- 

 out an opening below, nor could they do anything 

 if crowded on the upper edge of its support. 

 Another stage in the progress of accommodation 

 is shown close by in the Gongora atropurpurea. 



