IGO 
to remark that 'among these vegetable nobles, just as among 
the nobles of mankind, some degenerate individuals are ever to 
be found, who are on the ground always, and seem to constitute 
a class of their own.’ But it is not merely in their habits that 
the terrestrial species are placed below the epiphytes, they are 
also greatly inferior to them in singularity and beauty ” 
“ The Orchidaceae of each of the three great divisions of the 
globe have features of their own, so marked and peculiar, that, 
in most cases, a practised eye would have little difficulty in 
referring even a totally new form to its proper habitation. 
Thus, for example, the pendent stems and graceful flowers of 
many of the dendrobiums, aerides, and their allies, give a char- 
acter of beauty and lightness to tlie orchidaceous flora of tropical 
I ndia, which contrasts most strongly with the clumsy pseudobulbs 
of the bolbophyllums, or the long tails of the angrsecums of Af- 
rica. Again, in America, the characteristic features are, the 
upright vegetation (as distinguished from the pendent) of the 
epidendrums, the long straggling flower-spikes of many of the 
oncidiums, and a much greater variety of grotesque and marvel- 
lous forms than is to be met with in any part of the old world.” 
“ The uses to which the plants of this family are applied are 
few; but, in several instances, highly romantic. In Demerara, 
that most dreadful of all poisons, the ‘ Wourali,’ is thickened 
by the juice of the catasetums; and in Amboyna,the true ' Elixir 
of Love’ is prepared from the minute farina-like seeds of the 
Grammatophyllumspeciosum, which plant has just been receiv- 
ed in England, in a living state, from Mr. Gumming. In Mex- 
ico, where the ' language of flowers ’ is understood by all, the 
OrchidacefE seem to compose near the whole alphabet. Not an 
infant is baptized, not a marriage celebrated, nor a funeral ob- 
sequy performed, at which the aid of these flowers is not called 
in by the sentimental natives, to assist the expression of their 
feelings. They are offered by the devotee at the shrine of his 
favourite saint; by the lover, at the feet of his mistress ; and by 
the sorrowing survivor, at the grave of his friend ; whether, in 
short, on fast days or feast days, on occasions of rejoicing, or in 
moments of distress, these flowers are sought for with an avidity 
which would seem to say there was no sympathy like theirs; — 
thus ‘ Flor de los Santos,’ Flor de Corpus,’ Flor de los Muertos,’ 
‘Flor de Maio,’ 'No me Elvides’ (or forget me not), are but a 
