DECEMBER, 1903.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 335 
forest-growth, locally called a Rapadel Monte, growing in and by the side 
of what was then a dry stream bottom; here they came upon splendid 
specimens of Schomburgkia tibicinis in full bloom; some masses would 
have weighed 5olbs. or more, with as many as 25 flowering stems a yard 
and more in length, also on low trees and shrubs within arm’s reach many 
plants of a beautiful Oncidium with yard-long flower stems; a shower of 
golden blossoms. Antonio said “ Oncidium cebolleta majus.” It had 
terete leaves slightly channeled on the upper side, from 5 to 8 inches long— 
in colour a bronzy green, and, as found, growing in full sunlight on thin 
leaved stunted bushes. 
Quickly scrambling down into the Raya or Nullah, as in India, they 
soon descried fine masses of Brassavola glauca on low trees. With eager 
impatience the writer clambered up to detach some of these superb clumps, 
and got frightfully bitten by ants for his pains. However, all the plants 
they desired were quickly theirs, and rambling along the Raya they soon 
filled baskets and sacks with all they could possibly carry of Brassavola 
glauca, Oncidium tigrinum, O. luridum, and though much below its usual 
elevation, a few plants of Lelia anceps. One can hardly describe the 
emotions that possess one, when collecting Orchids or other plants in a 
state of nature, compared with their acquisition in the ordinary way: 
snakes, scorpions, ants, or other venomous things are as nothing when on 
this delightful quest. 
One solitary plant of an Oncidium, quite new to the writer was found 
of the O. Cavendishii type, the leaves, however, much smaller, not more 
than 5 inches long, bronzy, almost sanguineous in colour. The plant was 
in perfect flower, stem about 14 inches long, carrying 18 flowers—% inches 
in diameter, creamy white, with a few violet dots on the sepals and petals— 
a littlegem. Here also on the extremity of stout branches on large trees, 
were seen masses of an upright distichous-leaved Epidendrum with a 
terminal inflorescence of bright magenta-coloured flowers. This Epiden- 
‘drum is extremely difficult to collect as it is almost always found growing 
at a great height and in a mass with an epiphytic Phyllocactus and a large 
prickly bromeliad, the whole mass of roots forming the nidus of a most 
venomous species of ant ; indeed, the only way to collect the plant is to cut 
the tree down and smudge them out with smoke. This is also true of a 
beautiful species of Coryanthes which is occasionally found in these coast 
forests; in fact, there are two species or perhaps varieties—one a clear 
yellow without markings, the other with chocolate or maroon-coloured dots 
‘on a yellow ground. 
The travellers then started off for the sources of the Atoyac, a beautiful 
mountain torrent, some three leagues distant in the Sierras, and after an 
‘hour and a half’s walk after leaving Paraja Nuevo, they came to an ancient 
