238 BLUEFIELDS. 



along the sides or roof, as it happens. Three or four 

 of the gorgeous Long-tailed Humming-birds are 

 flitting here and there snapping up the invisible 

 insects that dance like motes in the sunbeam, or 

 flinging back the light with the lustre of an emerald 

 from their lovely bosoms as they sit contentedly upon 

 the lines, or hover in front of the cup of syrup placed 

 for them on the table's edge. Sometimes several of 

 the minuter Vervain Humming-birds are buzzing 

 like bees in the corners of the ceiling, hanging on 

 wings that are visible only like an undefined cloud 

 on each side. Beautiful Orchideous plants growing 

 on clumps of wood are hanging from pegs in the 

 wall, some throwing out their fantastic spikes of 

 blossoms, others in a state of rest, displaying nothing 

 but a maze of intertwined roots and the shrivelled 

 pseudo-bulbs. Large sacks containing OrchidecB 

 newly brought in lie on the floor, and many speci- 

 mens of the same curious tribe of plants are heaped 

 up under the tables, with CactoidecB, awaiting the 

 time when they may be shipped for England. On 

 the trunks of the trees around the dwelling house, 

 and more especially on the top of a broad buttress of 

 one of the outbuildings, are placed specimens of 

 some twenty or thirty species of epiphyte Orchidece, 

 fastened in various ways, partly that I may enjoy the 

 beauty of a race which has always been a favourite 

 of mine, and partly for a more practical purpose, that 

 of identifying them. In exploring the woods, at all 

 seasons, of course one often sees clumps of Orchidece 

 attached to trees, but not in flower ; at these times 

 so great is the resemblance of the bulbs of one kind 



