DENDROBIUM MONILIFORME. NECKLACE-STEMMED DENDROBIUM. 
Class XX. 
Natural Order, 
GYNANDRIA.— Order I. MONANDRIA. 
ORCHID M. T HE ORCHIS TRIBE. 
A Native of China and Japan, from the former of which countries it was introduced several years since 
by the Horticultural Society. 
In general it is unhealthy, grows slowly, and never flowers. It is particularly distinguished by the 
tumid joints of the erect stem, of which the contractions become when old so considerable, that the stem 
acquires something the appearance of a necklace. 
Thunberg describes, in his Flora Japonica (p. 30), an Epidendrum monile, to which he refers the Fu 
Ran of Ksempfer; but he adds, that the leaves are acute, and the flowers white, which renders it probable that 
he intended some other species. Kaempfer tells us, that it is suspended by the Japanese in baskets before 
the doors of their houses, in consequence of some vulgar superstition, the nature of which, however, he did 
not ascertain. 
Stem erect, 2 feet high, polished, branched, with pale-green, tumid joints. Leaves oblong, somewhat 
distichous, obliquely 2-lobed at the apex, with short, membranous, stem-clasping bases (petioles). Flowers 
in pairs, seated on a common peduncle, proceeding from the stem towards its apex, pale rose-coloured, 
marked with red veins. Bracteoe oblong, obtuse, membranous, slightly hairy. Labellum with two yellow 
spots in the throat.* 
That plants should be the materials, on which all animal life subsists, and by which it is sustained in its 
bodily organizations, is a well-known purpose of their own formation. By the operation of their living 
principle, they convert the inorganic matter, which they not only find but select out of what their roots meet, 
into their own kind of substance ; and this, which gives them their visible existence and beauty, becomes 
again transmutable into animal flesh by the animal’s own vital nature and functions. This double process 
is every day universally all going on in the three kingdoms of nature. The word selection may seem strong ; 
but if the radicals and the fibres of the roots entering a soil, shoot toward that which their plant needs; and 
tho coming in contact with other particles, yet take up those only which suit them — what can we call that 
but selecting ? There is a refusal of the one, and an active absorption of the other. A property of dis- 
cerning and taking, in preference to other matter, that which is the fittest for their nourishment, seems 
therefore to belong to all Plants. 
Without Vegetation, none of the animals we know, but those that live on water, or air, could have con- 
tinued in existence; for neither man nor animal can subsist on any thing in the mineral kingdom, until 
vegetation, by first making it vegetable substance, has prepared it for a future conversion into their own. 
Hence the justness of the Mosaic account, in placing the creation of Plants before that of Animals. Vege- 
tation could have remained without animals — but these unless their food had been ready for them, would, 
under their present economy of being, have soon disappeared. 
It is interesting to read of the mutual services which the organized kingdoms, from their reciprocal 
composition and structure, can render to each other. Thus an intelligent Naturalist has observed of the 
Oak : — 
c The insects which live and have their being on the Oak, amount to hundreds of species. It nourishes 
ferns, lichens, mosses, agaries, and boleti. It furnishes its apples, gall-nuts, acorns, leaves, and sawdust. 
Some are attacked by small fungi, which break their surface, admit moisture, and facilitate decay. The 
leaves, decomposing, form a vegetable earth ; and the worm seizes on them as his portion, and having fed 
upon part, draws the remainder into the earth.’ 
Botanical Register. 
