20 TiMEHRl. 



restrial species and these will be properly distinguished. 



4. — WHERE THEY ARE FOUND. 



Nearly three hundred species are found in British 

 Guiana, and they are distributed everywhere throughout 

 the forest region except in the densest portion. All 

 along the banks of the rivers and creeks, on the sand- 

 reefs, and especially on the mountain slopes, they flourish 

 on the trees, the sand, the rocks and even on the ground. 

 Generally speaking, particular species are peculiar to 

 certain localities, but they have the power of accom- 

 modation to a certain extent. Thus, those of the moun- 

 tains will flourish on low gnarled trees or on the ground, 

 quite indifferently, and those of the Mourie on low bushes 

 or fallen trunks and branches above the sand. In the 

 genus Catasetum we have one species growing below 

 the crown of the eta palm, others on branches just above 

 the ground or water of the creek, while one kind is very 

 common growing in the sand itself. Even a single 

 species will sometimes accommodate itself to different 

 circumstances, and become mach altered in size and 

 general habit by the change. One of the best examples 

 of this is the Epidendron no6lurnum, which is so widely 

 diffused as to be found in West Africa as well as Tropical 

 America. Some of the varieties are weedy in appear- 

 ance and have a marvellous power of endurance, while 

 others have quite handsome foliage of a ruddy brown 

 colour and grow to four times the size. When it is 

 perched high up on the tree and in full sunlight its leaves 

 are narrow and its stem four to six inches high, but on 

 the Mourie we have seen it rise above the sand to an 

 altitude of fully a yard. A stranger to the colony 

 will perhaps think that because we say orchids are plenti- 



