THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
and even the EricacefE, show epiphyic members. The 
most beautiful epiphytes, without doubt, belong to the 
OrchidacejE. Here we only see such in hot-houses. Our 
native orchids, such as the Hahenarias, Cjpripediums, 
ladies' tresses and t way-blade, are all terrestrial. Among 
humbler plants the lichens are epiphytic, but a lichen is a 
dual affair anyway — made up of alga and fungus. If it 
could speak it might tell us some queer stories of evolution. 
But to return to our orchids, the epiph3'tic forms 
abound in the tropics — Borneo, Celebes, Java, Sumatra, 
Madagascar, Mauritius, the South American countries, 
Mexico, and the West India Islands. Our Phillipine pos- 
sessions are full of them. Indeed, our colonies — Porto 
Rico, Guam, Samoa, etc.— offer a grand field for the 
ambitious explorer. 
These orchids often make the forests glorious though 
the fact remains that tropical woods, as a rule, do not 
show any such fine masses of color, as we obtain in more 
temperate regions. The flowers are frequently well up 
aloft, as are the gorgeous butterflies who love them. They 
excel in fanciful forms and wealth, or even exaggeration, 
of color. Often they resemble insects or the smaller birds; 
we have seen pictures of some that looked for all the world 
like little imps. There is no harmony or contrast of color 
that the3' do not exhibit. Homely looking plants, often, 
and springing from spindle-shaped and ribbed pseudo- 
bulbs, all at once they burst forth into extravagrant 
blossom. The flower of the Holy Ghost is an orchid. In 
it the true believer beholds the Spirit in the form of a dove 
descending to comfort and console. It was in ^.ladagas- 
car that Ellis found the strange Angroecum sesquipedale, 
with a nectar-bearing tube nearly a foot long. When dis- 
covered entomologists foretold the existence of a moth 
with a proboscis equally long to fathom it. The accom- 
modating insect soon after turned up. He had to; the 
two things were correlated ! 
One who has never visited a large conservatory filled 
with these exquisite plants, can give no idea of their 
