be ORCL ee VLE WY, 
VoL. XVII.] APRIL, 1909. f[No. 196. 
NOTES ON ORCHIDS OF A BRAZILIAN ISLAND. 
By J. J. KeeEvIL, Santos, S. Brazil. 
THE island of Santo Amaro is situated off the coast of Brazil, lat. 23 south, 
long. 46 west. Theannual rainfall is about 110 inches, of which the greater 
part occurs in the summer months of January and February. The 
temperature ranges from 60° to 95° Fahr., average about 80°. The relative 
humidity of the atmosphere often exceeds go per cent. 
On the south and east it faces the Atlantic, with hilly islets, lovely sandy 
bays and coves, interspersed with steep granite headlands. On the west 
and north it is separated from Santos Island and the mainland by narrow 
sea channels. It is about eighteen miles long by six broad. 
The interior consists of mangrove swamps, granite hills up to 1,000. feet 
high, covered with forest and old raised sandy beaches with low shrub. 
Orchids are abundant, though not easy to find or obtain. The 
professional collector has not so far ravaged them. Woodcutters destroy 
scores daily. Wanton forest fires and obnoxious insects also claim their toll. 
During the summer (October to April), when the majority flower, the woods 
are stifling and steamy ; snakes, poisonous and otherwise, not rare, mosquitoes 
and innumerable microscopic ticks, which burrow under the skin and 
irritate there for days, temper one’s enthusiasm. 
From May to September inclusive the climate is usually perfection. 
Reptiles and insects more quiescent, and the undergrowth less dense, 
enabling an easier transit through the woods. 
Cattleya intermedia, of several varieties, including alba, exists in a 
variety of positions. I have found them occasionally on beds of sphagnum 
(in marshy depressions of raised sandy beaches under the low shrub), which 
shows that nature anticipated man as to this method of cultivation. They 
will colonize a few square yards on the top of a bare granite boulder, 
surrounded by the tide, dashed by spray and subjected to scorching sun and 
every wind. They also exist high on the branches of trees 1,000 feet above 
the sea level. Their special metropolis, however, is a low, narrow, wind- 
Swept, marshy valley, with the ocean at both ends, and a steep granite head- 
land and hill at the sides. In the space of an acre there are many thousands. 
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