ORCHIDS. 89 
is endangered, and they rush, infuriated and exasperated, upon 
the daring individual who ventures to disturb their rest, 
“Then an extraordinary fight begins. The besieger —at- 
tacked on all sides by these little creatures, whose bites, though 
not deep, are very painful — gets wild, ejaculates at each fresh 
sting one or other of those energetic oaths, of which the 
Spanish language offers ample store; then either flies from 
his tormentors in despair, or plies his axe like a madman, in 
order to hasten the tree’s fall, and put an end to his suffer- 
ings. 
“When once the tree is felled, he is obliged to work 
very quickly, for now he has to defend himself against the 
whole colony. A final blow with the hatchet, having separated 
from the top a branch bearing the nest,—a lasso is firmly 
fixed on it, and the whole is dragged to a neighboring stream, 
where it is left for some hours, with the nest and the terri- 
ble colony which inhabit it. When it is believed that this 
prolonged submersion has put an end to these wretched little 
animals, it only remains to detach the plants by the aid of a 
pruning-knife, and the work is over. 
“Unfortunately, it seems as if a close connection joints 
the Coryanthes to the nest, and perhaps to the ants, —like 
Castor and Pollux of old; for the plant, once drawn from 
its natural habitat, can no longer thrive, in spite of the help 
of the old abandoned nest; so that we cannot help conclud- 
ing that the ants are absolutely necessary to its normal 
development; but I should hardly be favorable to adding this 
new insect-vermin to all those already imported. I leave any 
explanation of the phenomenon to Darwinians, and content 
