114 
THE MORAL OF FLOWERS. 
Their most striking peculiarity is that of being able to 
live without either earth or water, nay, sometimes almost 
without air, for Dr. Walsh says, he threw “ a specimen 
of this genus, which he thought curious, into his port¬ 
manteau, where it was forgotten, and many months 
after, in unfolding some linen, he was astonished to find 
a rich scarlet flower in full blow: it had not only lived, 
but vegetated and blossomed, though so long secluded 
from air, light, and humidity.” Sir William Jones, who 
blends the enthusiasm of the poet with the research of 
the philosopher, in his enumeration of the most rare 
and beautiful blossoms he met with in the East, says of 
the retuse-leaved epidendrum, “ The flowers are grate¬ 
fully fragrant and exquisitely beautiful, looking as if 
composed of shells or made of enamel. This lovely 
plant attaches itself chiefly to the highest Amras and 
Bilvas; but it is an air-plant, and lives in a pot without 
earth or water; its leaves are excavated upward to catch 
and retain the dew.” He mentions, also, the Flos aeris, 
so denominated from its very extraordinary properties. 
“ It is a native of Java, and the East Indies beyond the 
Ganges ; the inhabitants of which countries, on account 
of the elegance of its leaves, the beauty of its blossoms, 
and the exquisite odour it diffuses, frequently gather it, 
and suspend it by a silken cord from the ceilings of 
their rooms; where, from year to year, it continues to put 
