238 
BLUEFIELDS. 
along the sides or roof, as it happens. Three or four 
of the gorgeous Long-tailed Humming-birds are 
flitting here and there snapping up the invisible 
insects that dance like motes in the sunbeam, or 
flinging hack the light v^ith the lustre of an emerald 
from their lovely bosoms as they sit contentedly upon 
the lines, or hover in front of the cup of syrup placed 
for them on the table’s edge. Sometimes several of 
the minuter Vervain Humming-birds are buzzing 
like bees in the corners of the ceiling, hanging on 
wings that are visible only like an undefined cloud 
on each side. Beautiful Orchideous plants growing 
on clumps of wood are hanging from pegs in -the 
wall, some throwing out their fantastic spikes of 
blossoms, others in a state of rest, displaying nothing 
but a maze of intertwined roots and the shrivelled 
pseudo-bulbs. Large sacks containing OrchidecB 
newly brought in lie on the floor, and many speci- 
mens of the same curious tribe of plants are heaped 
up under the tables, with CactoidecE, awaiting the 
time when they may be shipped for England. On 
the trunks of the trees around the dwelling house, 
and more especially on the top of a broad buttress of 
one of the outbuildings, are placed specimens of 
some twenty or thirty species of epiphyte Orchidece, 
fastened in various ways, partly that I may enjoy the 
beauty of a race which has always been a favourite 
of mine, and partly for a more practical purpose, that 
of identifying them. In exploring the woods, at all 
seasons, of course one often sees clumps of Orchidece 
attached to trees, but not in flower ; at these times 
so great is the resemblance of the bulbs of one kind 
