SepT.-Oct., 1919] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 145 
| ORCHIDS AT HOME. | 
-. interesting glimpse of Orchids amid their native surroundings 
may be gained by the perusal of that fascinating work, ‘‘ The Gardens 
of the Sun,” by the late Mr. F. W. Burbidge, in which are recorded 
experiences of his travels in those “beauty spots of the Eastern Seas,” 
Borneo and the adjacent Islands, where “ Nature still reigns supreme.” 
Nothing, he remarks, can possibly be of more interest to lovers of exotic 
plants generally than to be able to form some idea of their native homes, So 
far as description can possibly supply the place of travel. In countries 
where the mean temperature is thirty or forty degrees higher than in 
England, the clothing of the earth, so far as represented by vegetation, is 
of a luxuriance we can scarcely imagine, and the variety caused by the 
addition of such distinct types as tall palms, bananas, grasses, OF bamboos 
and tree ferns to the more ordinary kinds of tree beauty, and the further 
clothing of these with ‘epiphytes and parasites of the most singular or 
beautiful description, makes up a scene of immense interest. 
Epiphytal Orchids are essential heat-lovers—like palms, they are children: 
ofthe sun. One may often travel a long way in the islands where these 
plants are most abundant without catching a glimpse of them; and this is: 
especially true of Phalenopsis grandiflora, which is of all Orchids perhaps: 
the least obtrusive in its native habits. This trait is, however, the 
unobtrusiveness of high birth, they do not care to touch the ground, but 
rather prefer a sphere of their own high up in the trees overhead. Zt he: 
plants have a charming freedom of aspect, as thus seen naturally high up in 
mid-air, screened from the sun by a leafy canopy, deluged with rains for 
half the year or more at least, and fanned by the cool sea breezes or 
monsoons, which doubtless exercise some potent influence on their health— 
an influence which we can but rarely apply to them artificially, and the 
greatly modified conditions under which we must perforce cultivate them 
may not render this one so desirable as it sometimes appears to be abroad. ; 
In the lowland forests near the equator a peculiar phase of vegetation is 
Trees one hundred feet to two hundred feet in 
and one walks in shade—diffused light 
the tree trunks being the pillars of 
h up above represent the roof. 
th, rocks or fallen trunks, is 
not unfrequently seen. 
height tower upwards on all sides ; 
is perhaps the more correct expression—thet 
Nature’s cathedral, and the leafy branches hig 
All the vegetation you see around you on eart 
represented by a few ferns, lindsayas, with bright steel-blue fronds a med 
high, broad leaved aroids, or ginger-worts ; but epiphytes of all kinds aie 
totally absent: and the truth is, that, like lovable ‘‘ Tom Bowling,” of 
