THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 
more or less fleshy, as in Masdevallia, and others in which both 
features are practically absent, as in the Pescatoreas, Bolleas, and 
Warsceimczellas, a pretty sure indication that these plants have no 
long periods of drought to provide against. In short, they remain 
active almost throughout the year, and should be treated accord- 
ingly. 
In a chapter entitled ''Up in the Trees," Mr. Rodway has given 
a most graphic account of the epiphytes of Guiana. He states 
that the gloom of the forest is so great that very few plants exi 
on the ground, and in order to see the representatives of the pretty 
wood flora of temperate climes we must look overhead. In the 
recesses of the forest there is nought but bare trunks and leafless 
*'bush-ropes." Even the epiphytes want light, and cannot exist 
without it, and where this precious influence is obtainable, they 
crowd every branch and twig, almost to the ground, and carry on 
the struggle for life right up to the tree tops. Monster arums 
twelve feet in diameter occupy the great forks, and throw down 
long cord-like aerial roots. Pushing those cords aside, the plants 
are barely discernible on account of the crowd of other epiphytes 
which surround them. Screens of creepers with festoons of hand- 
some flowers, masses of Rhipsalis, pendulous branches of grass- 
like ferns, and thousand epiphytes on every branch ob- 
scure the view, and make it hard to say from whence 
a particular aerial root is derived. Some branches are occupied 
by dense rows of Tillandsias, which push everything else aside and 
take possession of the upper surface, where their vase-like circles 
of leaves form reservoirs of water against the time when little or 
no rain falls, which reservoirs are utilised by the beautiful Utri- 
cularia Humholdtii. Hardly a twig is free from epiphytes unless 
the gloom is too great, and these plants vary greatly in the amount 
of light they require. Some grow on the shady side of the trunks 
and never see the 'sun, others exist and thrive in places where we 
might expect them to be burnt up. Among the mosses and hepa- 
ticae grow tiny Orchids with almost microscopic flowers. 
The study of epiphytes in their native surroundings is a fascinat- 
ing subject, and the fact that they can exist in the way that many 
of them do shows a marvelous power of development in some past 
age. They are for the most part children of the moist forests, and 
