E P I 
EPIDE'MIC, or Epidemical, adj. [from em, upon, 
and Gr. the people.] That which falls at once 
upon great numbers of people, as a plague.—See the ar¬ 
ticle Medicine. —As the proportion of epidemical difeafes 
fliews the aptnefs of the air to fudden and vehement im- 
preflions, the chronical difeafes (hew the ordinary temper 
of the place. Graunt. —Generally prevailing ; affedting 
great numbers.—The more epidemical and prevailing this 
evil is, the more honourable are tliofe who (bine as ex¬ 
ceptions. South. —General; univerfal: not ufed, nor proper-. 
They’re citizens o’ th’ world, they’re all in all; 
Scotland’s a nation epidemical. Cleaveland. 
EPIDEN'DRUM, f. [sth cSeropoi', Gr. from its growing 
upon trees.] In botany, a genus of the clafs gynandria, 
order diandria, natural order orchidese. The generic 
characters are—Calyx: fpathes vague; fpadix fimple; 
perianthium none. Corolla: petals five, oblong, ex¬ 
tremely long, very fpreading ; nedtary tubular at the 
bafe, top-fhaped, placed downwards within the petals, 
with an oblique two-cleft mouth ; the fuperior lip very 
fliort, three-cleft ; the inferior lengthened into a point. 
Stamina : filaments two, very (hot t, fitting on the piltil; 
antherae covered by the upper lip of the nedtary. Pif- 
tillnm: germ fiender, long, twilled, inferior; ftyle very 
fiiort, fattened to the upper lip of the nedtary ; ftigma 
obfeure. Pericarpium: filiqueextremelylong, columnar, 
flefhy. Seeds: numerous, extremely fmall.— EJfential 
Chara&er. Nedtary, turbinate, oblique, reflex ; corolla, 
fpreading ; fpur, none. 
Defcription. The whole genus is obfeure in its charac¬ 
ter, differences, and fynonyms ; for the flowers in dried 
fpecimens can hardly be unfolded : the plants are culti¬ 
vated with difficulty in gardens; and the fpecies have 
not been fufficiently deferibed by authors who have had 
an opportunity of feeing them in America and the Eaft 
Indies, their native places of growth. Linnaeus had 
only thirty forts in his Species Plantarum, and the num¬ 
ber was not increafed in the twelfth and thirteenth edi¬ 
tions of the Syflema Vegetabilium. In the fourteenth 
edition of the fame work, two only are added by Murray 
from Jacquin, who has eleven other new fpecies in his 
Stirpium Americanarum Hifloria. Swartz has forty-nine 
from the Weft-Indies, fome of which are the fame with 
Jacquin’s. Retzius has twenty-three obferved by Koenig 
in the Eaft Indies. And Forfter has ten from the iflands 
in the South Seas. The number of forts here regiftered 
amounts to 125, and doubtlefs there are many more, firice 
Dr. Smith, in his elegant works, has figured two fpecies 
from Jamaica, which efcaped the refearch of the indefa¬ 
tigable Swartz. On a feverer ferutiny, however, fome 
of thefe numerous fpecies may turn out to be varieties, 
and others to be the fame fpecies repeated. Jacquin re¬ 
marks, that all his fpecies, particularly the fmaller ones, 
become by age more or lefs cefpitofe, and run over the 
bark of trees with their numerous roots, fixing them- 
felves into it with a confiderable degree of firmnefs. 
Species. I. Climbing. 1. Epidendrum vanilla, vanil¬ 
la or vanelloe : leaves ovate-oblong, nerved, felfile, cau- 
line, tendrils fpiral. The vanilla is feparated from the 
other epidendrums by Plumier, Juflieu, Miller, and 
others ; Item trailing, fomewhat like common ivy, but not 
fo woody, faftening itfelf to whatever tree grows near it, 
by fmall fibres or roots produced at every joint, by which 
it may receive nouriftiment when cut or broken off from 
the root a confiderable height above the ground ; the 
leaves are as large as thofe of the common laurel, but 
siot quite fo thick ; they are placed alternate at the 
joints, which are fix or feven inches afunder, and are of a 
lively green colour above, but paler underneath ; the 
Items .{hoot into many branches, which alfo faften thern- 
felves to the boughs of trees, and thus rife to the height 
of eighteen or twenty feet, fpreading quite over fmaller 
trees; the flowers are of a greenifli yellow colour, mixed 
with white, and are fucceeded by fruit fix or feven inches 
Yol, VI. No. 397. 
E P I S61 
long. The manner of growth and flowering, the fize of 
the flowers, fruit, and lens-fhaped, dark-fhining feeds, 
without any aril, diftinguifti this from the other fpecies. 
Vanilla, with E. fios aeris and claviculatum, might be 
feparated from the genus epidendrum. Native of South 
America and the iflands in old woods, in the moift flutdy 
parts of them. In the bay of Campeachy, at Cartha- 
gena, the Caraccas, Honduras, Darien, Cayenne, &c. the 
fruit is gathered and pteferved. When it turns of a yel¬ 
low colour, and begins to open, they gather it, and lay it 
in fmall heaps to ferment two or three days, in the lame 
manner as is pradtifed for the cocoa or chocolate pods ; 
then they fpread them in the fun to dry ; and when they 
are about half dried, they flat them with their hands, and 
afterwards rub them over with the oil of palma Chrifti, 
or of the cocoa ; the,n they expofe them to the fun again 
to dry, and afterwards they rub them over with oil a fe- 
cond time ; then they put them in fmall bundles, cover¬ 
ing them with the leaves of the Indian reed, to preferve 
them. Thefe plants produce but one crop of fruit in a 
year, which is commonly ripe in May, fit for gathering, 
for they do not let them remain on the plants to be per- 
fedtly mature, becaufe then they are not fo fit for ufe ; 
but when they are about half changed yellow', they ef- 
teem them better for keeping than when they are changed 
to a dark brown colour, at which time the fruit fplits, 
and (hews a great quantity of fmall feeds, which are in- 
clofed within it. While the fruit is green, it affords no 
remarkable feent, but as it ripens it emits a raoft grateful 
aromatic odour. When the fruit begins to open, the 
birds attack it and devour all the feeds very greedily, but 
do not eat any other part of the fruit. The fruits which 
are brought to Europe are of a dark brown colour, about 
fix inches long, and fcarce an inch broad; they are 
wrinkled on the outfide, and full of a vaft number of 
black feeds, like grains of fund, of a pleafant fmell, like 
balfarn of Peru. The fruit is only ufed in England as 
an ingredient in chocolate, to which it gives a pleafant 
flavour to fome palates, but to others it is very difagree- 
ble ; but the Spanifti phyficians in America ufe it in me¬ 
dicine, and efteem it grateful to the ftomach and brain for 
expelling wind, to provoke urine, to refill poifon, and 
cure the bite of venomous animals. The Spaniards, 
French, and Italians, not only ufe the vanilla to give cho¬ 
colate a delicate fmell and agreeable flavour, but alfo to 
perfume fnuffs and other fubftarices. It yields a great 
quantity of oil and volatile fait. 
Mr. Miller has another fpecies, which he calls Vanilla, 
axillaris , and diftinguiflies by its oblong, blunt, com. 
prefled, jointed leaves, and axillary flow'ers. It was lent 
him from Carthagena in New Spain, where it grows na¬ 
turally. It has.a climbing ftalk, fending out roots from 
the joints, like the other, and mounting to a great height. 
The leaves, which come out fingly at each joint, are ob¬ 
long, fmooth, and jointed. The flowers come out from 
the fide of the branches ; they are fhaped like thofe of 
the great bee-orchis, but are longer : the helmet is of a 
pale pink, and the lip is purple. It flowered in the 
Chelfea garden, but lived only one year. There are two 
or three varieties of the common vanilla, differing in the 
colour of their flowers, and the length of their pods. 
2. Epidendrum flos aeris: ftem columnar, fomewhat 
branched; leaves lanceolate ; petals linear, obtufe. The 
flowers referable a fpider. It is a native of Java, and is 
parafitical. See No. 112. 
II. Stem upright, leafy. 3. Epidendrum tenuifolium, 
or thin-leaved epidendrum : leaves on the ftem fubulate, 
channelled. Native of Malabar in the Eaft Indies. 
4. Epidendrum fpatulatum, or flatted epidendrum : 
leaves on the ftem oblong, alternate, obtufe, veinlefs; 
lip of the nectary bifid and divaricate. 5. Epidendrum 
furvum, or dark epidendrum : caulefeent ; leaves im¬ 
bricate, lanceolate ; racemes axillary. Natives cf the 
Eaft Indies. 
6. Epidendrum coccineum, or fcarlet vanilla; leaves 
jo K CIV 
