iESCHYNANTHUS. 
73 
iESCHYNANTHUS. 
WITH AN ILLUSTRATION. 
This very elegant genus of Indian parasites has of late 
occupied much attention at the hands of botanists and cultivators, 
consequent on the introduction of several exceedingly beautiful 
species; and, from the exertions of the latter, much of the ob¬ 
scurity which formerly attached to the management of such 
plants has been removed. A few years since ASschynanths were 
considered troublesome subjects, making little or no return for 
the care bestowed, and in not a few cases were rejected as com¬ 
pletely worthless because of the paucity of flowers. A better 
knowledge of the physical geography of the countries whence 
they are derived, and a more careful attention to the habits of 
the plants, have brought about the results to be expected ; and the 
production of an abundant display of blossoms is now as much a 
matter of certainty as before it was precarious. The Indian 
Archipelago, and particularly the Islands of Java and Borneo, 
appear to abound with these plants, where they flourish in com¬ 
pany with, and in the same manner as the epiphytal orchids; 
dead and living trees on the margins of forests are clothed with 
them, and the ravines and gulleys of mountain streams, as they 
descend to the warmer temperature of the plains, are enlivened 
by the brilliancy of these and similar vegetable beings. It is not 
long since a common error prevailed, in the idea that air plants 
and others of resembling character were mainly inhabitants of 
the depths of the thickest forests, and hence arose the practice 
of providing a dense shade as essential to their culture; the 
more accurate accounts which modern collectors give of the 
habitats of the treasures they discover shows this to be wrong: 
the majority of the class are met with in positions perfectly open 
to the influence of the sun, and at certain seasons they are 
positively scorched up by its strength : now, though it may not be 
advisable to attempt this extremity, inasmuch as it would increase 
the difficulty of attaining its opposite—the great and continued 
supply of moisture which they receive in a state of nature, during 
hi. ' 7 
