THE ORCHID REVIEW. 267 
ORCHIDS IN GUIANA. 
A VERY interesting paper, entitled ‘‘ Sketches of Wild Orchids in Guiana,” 
by E. F. im Thurn, F.R.H.S., appears in the last number of the Journal of 
the Royal Horticultural Society. The subject was down, some years ago, for 
one of the afternoon lectures, though circumstances did not permit the 
author to keep his engagement. 
The author remarks that Guiana is a land of Orchids, but not of showy 
Orchids. He has devoted attention to nearly 300 Guiana species, but thinks 
it doubtful if the ordinary grower would care to have more than a dozen of 
them in his houses. The most desirable kinds he enumerates are Oncidium 
Lanceanum, Cattleyas superba and Lawrenceana, Zygopetalums 
rostratum, venustum, and Burkei, Paphinia cristata, Ionopsis paniculata, 
Rodriguezia candida, and perhaps Catasetum longifolium. The district 
referred to lies between 7 and 8 degrees north of the equator, all of it being 
of low elevation and covered with the densest forest, only broken by the 
wider rivers and by small patches of wet and dry savannah. 
Two of the best Orchids of Guiana are to be found by the seaside. 
Behind the sandbanks, the mangroves often attain a considerable size, and 
it is high up on trees of this kind, exposed almost to the full blaze of the 
sun, that Oncidium Lanceanum grows most luxuriantly. It is said to be 
widely but sparsely distributed, and a most successful garden Orchid in the 
colony. Masses of it may be seen in the older gardens of Georgetown, and, 
in one case, a mass, which had been sold, was found to be too big for the 
cart sent to fetch it, and it had to be divided. Diacrium bicornutum also 
clings to the more exposed boughs, and seems to enjoy the blaze of the sun 
and the full exposure to the salt-laden wind. Epidendrum fragrans, in 
places, clothes the otherwise bare trunks of the mangroves which border the 
large rivers for many miles from the sea. In places, colonies of Coryanthes 
maculata are found, the roots being matted together by ants into a round, 
black mass. Epidendrum imatophyllum and Schomburgkii occur in the 
same places, and with much the same habits. 
On some of the smallest twigs of the water-washed bushes on the 
smaller creeks, deeper in the forest, cling the tiny, Iris-like plants, bearing 
comparatively enormous yellow flowers, of Oncidium iridifolium, while, 
higher up the same bushes, on the stouter branchlets, hang clusters of the 
dark-green leaves of Rodriguezia secunda, its long spikes of large, intensely 
ruby-coloured flowers looking more jewel-like than ever when one happens 
to see them against the strong light of that sky. In similar places, but 
more rarely, grows R. candida, with broader, darker leaves and large, white 
flowers, whose beauty is increased by the pale, lemon-coloured throat of the 
labellum. 
