ORCHIDACEiE. 



297 



v AEEIDES. 



This genus derives the name of "Air Plant ry from the 

 property the species have of flourishing for some time sus- 

 pended in the air without any connection with the soil ; in 

 this state they will continue to flower for some weeks, and 

 in their native country the natives procure them when ready 

 to flower and hang them in their rooms, where their beau- 

 tiful spikes of delicate and curious blossoms gradually un- 

 fold and shed a delightful perfume. A. ocloratum has de- 

 licate flowers of white and pink ; arachnites, brown and 

 purple ; tessellatum, greenish-yellow ; affine, pink ; crispum, 

 white and rose-coloured ; virens, lilac ; and maculosa and 

 quinquevulnerum, spotted. These species are from the 

 East Indies, Java, and the Philippines; it seems advisable 

 in cultivating them to plant the root with decayed wood 

 and leaves, with a little peat or vegetable mould, and to 

 suspend them in the hottest and dampest part of the 

 house. They succeed for a time in baskets of moss kept 

 very damp. 



