CHOICE OF TKEES. 
485 
especially in the shallow intervening valleys, whether 
from the closeness of the woods preventing the escape 
of vapours, or the luxuriance of the rank vegetation, 
the air feels at all times surcharged with moisture, 
even during the dry seasons. In the night this 
moisture is concentrated very copiously, so that in the 
concavities of large leaves, sometimes as much as a 
wine-glass full of clear water may be seen collected, 
especially on such leaves as those of the Heliconia, or 
wild plantain, and of the great esculent Arums, 
called Cocoes, of the Negroes’ grounds. I have many 
a time been refreshed by drinking from these leaves. 
The ferns and other herbaceous plants that fringe the 
narrow paths, and the Lycopodiums and mosses that 
form thick cushions around the roots of the trees, are 
always found heavy with dew, and as it were saturated, 
when one visits this locality in the early morning. 
With respect to the choice of trees exercised by 
Orchidece, it certainly seems to exist, but is not, I 
think, very exclusive. In the lowlands, the lovely 
Broughtonia sanguinea is found in very different situ- 
ations ; on the Palmetto thatch (a small species of 
Thrinax, I believe), that forms an extensive grove, 
at Crabpond Morass, it grows abundantly, at the 
height of four feet from the ground. At Alligator 
Pond I took it from a Hog-plum (^Spondias graveo- 
lens'), and around Bluefields it is common on the 
Calabash, both trees of moderate dimensions. But 
on the road to Savannah le Mar, bunches of its bril- 
liant blossom are seen depending from the lofty forks 
and limbs of the towering Cotton-trees (Eriodendron), 
at an elevation of eighty or a hundred feet. 
