SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



July 13, i5 



much the rule as the exception ; he witnesses forms 

 shading away into each other like the colours in the 

 solar spectrum, and he asks at last vainly, What is a 

 species ? If he passes from such generalities to details 

 he sees how, as Darwin has shown us, the most won- 

 derful structures are employed for effecting the repro- 

 duction of the plant. 



The horticulturist finds the management of these 

 flowers in a European climate a task which at once 

 stimulates him by its difficulties and delights him by the 

 success with which his skill is often crowned. 



Lastly shall we say that orchids have a particular 

 fascination for the millionaire, and especially for him 

 who has recently arrived at this envied position ? A 

 well-stocked, well-managed orchid house, and a constant 

 supply of these lovely flowers for domestic and personal 

 ornament, is proof of wealth even more striking, because 

 more frequently producible, than an overflowing picture 

 gallery. The prices paid for single plants of the rarer 

 and more beautiful species are very high ; _£s°° have 

 been paid for a single plant of Cattleya mossice, and 

 small shoots of a Cypripedium have fetched half that 

 sum. These prices may remind some of our readers of 

 the " tulip mania " which once prevailed in Holland, 

 when fabulous sums were sometimes paid for a single 

 root. There is, however, an essential difference. The 

 " tulip mania " was a development not of horticulture or 

 of flower-worship, but simply of gambling. Bulbs were 

 sold which had no existence, and which were not in- 

 tended to be delivered. The man who, e.g., bought 100 

 bulbs of "Semper Augustus" — though, perhaps, not 

 half that number could have been met with in all 

 Holland — expected or hoped that he could in a few 

 hours re-sell them at a profit to some other speculator. 



Now in the high prices paid for orchids there is 

 nothing similar. At sales the plants are actually pro- 

 duced, examined, and, when sold, duly delivered. Their 

 costliness is due to their wonderful beauty, and to the 

 difficulty of procuring and preserving many of the finest 

 kinds. If the nurseryman is to send out experienced 

 plant-hunters to the forests of Burmah or Borneo, and 

 to pay for all the appliances needful for conveying home 

 to England the precious booty safe and sound, he must 

 naturally demand a fair profit on his outlay. Nor do 

 we think that the passion for orchids is a mere tem- 

 porary freak. If it be true in the somewhat hacknied 

 words of Keats, that " A thing of beauty is a joy for 

 ever," these gorgeous plants will always be cherished by 

 all who have the means to acquire them, or the skill to 

 keep them in healthy growth. 



We must remember that we are here speaking, not of 

 a single genus, but of a whole family of plants, including 

 many genera and a whole multitude of species. If we 

 make no attempt at their enumeration it is because, as 

 we have already intimated, the task of drawing a 

 definite line between species anti species puzzles even 

 the most eminent botanists. But so widely do they 

 differ in their structure and habits that a non-botanist 

 would scarcely think of referring them to the same 

 group. Who, for instance, would think that the common 

 spotted meadow-orchid — as abundant in the pastures of 

 " flowery Suffolk " as is the daisy in the neighbourhood 

 of London— could be a near ally of the magnificent Odonto- 

 glosswn blandum, of which we give an illustration ? Yet 

 such is the case. The orchids of Europe, North America, 

 and the temperate parts of Asia grow in the soil after the 

 normal fashion of plants. The orchids of the tropics and of 



certain exceptional temperate regions, such as the eastern 

 coast of Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and Japan, 

 are epiphytous, that is, they grow, not in the soil, but upon 

 the trunks of trees or rocks to which they attach them- 

 selves. It is curious that the species which thus main- 

 tain themselves should be larger and more luxuriant 

 than the kinds growing in the soil, and the most absurd 

 theories have been broached in explanation. Some have 

 even suggested that these plants have the power of 

 manufacturing the mineral matter which they, in com- 

 mon with all plants, require out of air and water ! The 

 fact is that the tree-trunks and the rocks themselves 

 supply such matter. Decaying leaves, and other vege- 

 table debris, and, above all, the dust of the earth, which 

 can nowhere be excluded, lodge among the root-stems of 

 these plants and supply all the mineral mattter which 

 they need. 



The more splendid orchids, therefore, are parasites. 

 Unlike the common run of parasites, however, they are 

 beyond comparison more beautiful than the beings upon 

 which they feed. This may teach us the danger of 

 making sweeping assertions, based, perhaps, upon a 

 number of facts, but leaving others out of account. 



In our next article we shall notice some of the more im- 

 portant groups of this wonderful family. 

 (To be continued?) 



Bifurcated Palm-trees. — M. A.E.Goldi writes from Rio 

 de Janeiro to La Nature to this effect : — " You published, 

 on March 3rd of this year, an article on a bifurcated 

 palm-tree at Cayenne. Such cases are not so rare as you 

 seem to indicate. Here, at Rio, of ten specimens of an 

 ornamental palm, very common in the gardens of the 

 Brazilian capital, four are certainly bifurcated. It is a 

 palm of the genus Areca, probably A. arundinacea, known 

 colloquially as ' palmeira bambu.' In the genus Oreodoxa, 

 of which there are many splendid specimens in Brazil, 

 bifurcation is less common, but more than one instance is 

 known. Professor Haeckel, of Jena, on his return from 

 Ceylon, spoke of a bifurcated cocoa-nut tree which had 

 been shown him there as something remarkable." 



Natural Food for Young Trout. — A writer in the 

 Field, who uses the unpardonable signature of " Detached 

 Badger," cautions trout-breeders against introducing into 

 their tanks any of the parasitical forms of Entomostraca. 

 One of these, Argulus foliaceus, he pronounces the most 

 prevalent and deadly enemy of fresh-water fish. Unfor- 

 tunately, it has the power of leaving the fish upon which 

 it is feeding and swimming freely in the water; hence, 

 when once introduced into a pond containing young fry, 

 it produces a great spread of disease. The same writer 

 points out that the Entomostraca require a due supply 

 of food in the tanks. 



Curious Case of Mimicry. — Mr. J. B. Steere (Ameri- 

 can Naturalist) observed in Southern Mindanao a very 

 curious case of mimicry. Among the lizards was a 

 flying species (Draco), very abundant on the cocoa-nut 

 trees. On opening the wing-membranes one could not 

 help noticing a likeness to a butterfly both in the shape 

 of wings and in the colouring of blue with red spots. 

 This peculiar colouring may aid the lizard both in escap- 

 ing its enemies, the hawks, and in capturing its own 

 insect prey. 



