HORTICULTURAL SHOW. 59 



displaying their glories and shedding their perfumes only when 

 worn by princesses or ladies of high degree. In Honduras, again, 

 the large hollow cylindrical stalks of a fine species are made into 

 trumpets by the children of the country, and pour forth the tor- 

 tured notes in fitful floods. 



Thus it would seem as if the air plant was not created for the 

 profit of man beyond pleasing his senses of sight and smell ; nor 

 is it of advantage as food for animals. But nature, ever mindful 

 of the wants of humanity, has made even some of this curious 

 family of plants subservient to human comfort. The bulbs of 

 the Maxillaria bicolor, contain a large quantity of an insipid 

 watery fluid, which is generally sucked by the poor native of 

 Peru in the dry season ; a similar fluid is extracted from another 

 variety in Mexico, which is used as a cooling draught in fevers ; 

 in New Zealand certain species are of considerable value as escu- 

 lents ; and Mr. Bateman even says that in Guiana, the soles of 

 the shoemaker are as much indebted to the viscid matter obtained 

 from the Catesetums and Cyrtopodiums, as are the poisoned 

 arrows of the Indians. 



Of all the strange properties of this family of plants, that of 

 taking a resemblance to various objects of the animal kingdom, 

 is, perhaps, the most striking. Says a writer in an old volume 

 of a London magazine, these shapes are " so strangely varied, 

 that 



' Eye of newt, and toe of frog ' 



are the least singular of the forms that lie cowering in the bosom 

 of their petals ; the heads of unknown animals, reptiles of un- 

 heard-of figures, coils of snakes, rising as if to dart upon the 

 curious observer, may all be seen in the blossoms of the various 

 species, whose very flowers may be likened to unearthly insects 

 on the wing." This language may seem rather ill-chosen, but 

 even the cool-headed Loudon remarks, that " in our native spe- 

 cies, we find the bee, fly, spider, lizard, man, &c., surprisingly 

 imitated ; and in those of warmer climates, swans, eagles, doves, 

 pelicans, and other birds." The wonderful flower called " The 

 Holy Ghost plant," is of this species, and many of our readers 

 will be able to attest from personal examination the strange re- 

 semblance the specimens sometimes bear to a gentle dove descend- 

 ing on spread pinions from the sky. What wonder then that 

 this and other varieties should be regarded with wonder and rev- 

 erence by superstitious savages ! In India, the higher varieties. 



