rly cultivated as an esculent
plant, the green pods being dressed and eaten as peas.

[152]

EPIDENDRUM COCHLEATUM. TWO-LEAV'D EPIDENDRUM.

_Class and Order._

GYNANDRIA DIANDRIA.

_Generic Character._

Nectarium turbinatum, obliquum, reflexum.

_Specific Character and Synonyms._

EPIDENDRUM _cochleatum_ foliis oblongis geminis glabris striatis bulbo
innatis, scapo multifloro, nectario cordato. _Linn. Syst. Vegetab,
ed. 14. Murr. p. 819._ _Ait. Hort. Kew. V. 3. p. 303._

HELLEBORINE cochleato flore. _Plum. Sp. 9. u. 185. fig. 2._

[Illustration: No 152]

Plants which draw their support from other living ones, of which there
are numerous instances, are by Botanists termed parasitical, and of this
kind are most of the present family; deriving their generic name, which
is of Greek extraction, from growing on trees, into the bark of which
they fix their roots; some of them are also found to grow on dead wood,
as the present plant, which is described by Sir HANS SLOANE, in
his history of Jamaica, _V. 1. p. 250. t. 121. f. 2._ as not only
growing plentifully on trees, but also on the palisadoes of St. Jago de
la Vega.

Instances of these plants flowering in England are very rare; Commodore
GARDNER, in the year 1789, presented to the Apothecaries
company some roots of this plant, taken up in the woods of Jamaica with
great care, and which being successfully treated by Mr.
FAIRBAIRN in their garden at Chelsea, one of them threw up a
flowering stem last February, from whence our drawing was made.

Mr. FAIRBAIRN planted the roots in pots of earth, composed of
rotten wood and decayed leaves, plunging them into the tan-bed of a pit
of considerable size.

In its fructification, the Epidendrum obviously agrees with the Orchis
tribe, but differs essentially in the oeconomy of its roots; in the
Orchis the roots spring from the crown of the bulb, which is formed in
the earth; in the Epidendrum the bulb, or the part which appears to be
analogous to a bulb, though of a green colour, is produced above ground,
while the roots or fibres proceed from below it.

[153]

BULBOCODIUM VERNUM. VERNAL BULBOCODIUM.

_Class and Order._

HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

_Generic Character._

_Corolla_ infundibuliformis, hexapetala: unguibus angustis staminiferis.
_Capsula_ supera.

_Specific Character and Synonyms._

BULBOCODIUM _vernum_ foliis lanceolatis. _Linn. Syst. Veg. ed. 14. Murr.
p. 320._ _A