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ornament and defence that they bestow upon their head. A plentiful subsistence is supplied to them by a kitchen garden, a few fruit trees, and a manioc field. If besides these they possess a viola (a small guitar strung with metal strings), and some tobacco, wherewith to make their much-loved paper cigars, their fondest wishes are gratified. Smoking the latter and strumming the former, they can beguile whole half-days in a state of enviable forgetfulness, vegetating like the plants. A few fowls, sent to the city from to time, furnish the supplies necessary to be obtained from thence; and thus are sustained thousands of families, whose yearly income does not exceed twenty milreas, which are equal to about four pounds ten shillings!

ONCIDIUM PELICANUM.

THE genus of orchidaceous plants to which this species belongs derived their generic name from oyxos, a tumour, on account of the callosities with which the disk of the labellum is covered. The species are amongst the most beautiful epiphytous plants, and are very conspicuous by their loose panicles of yellow or olive-coloured flowers. The Lofty Oncidium (O. altissimum) grows three or four feet high, displaying its yellow flowers in August and September. The Spreadeagle (O. carthaginense) species, which is nearly as lofty, puts forth its peculiar-shaped olive-coloured flowers in May and June. There is also the Butterflyplant (0. papilio) of Trinidad, bearing its large yellow and red flowers in the month of March; these are poised on slender footstalks, and seem to dance about in the air like some gaudy insects. The Frog-bearing (0. raniferum), with its yellow-spotted flowers, is also a singular and pretty onament of the bark-stove in August and September; and the species figured in our group is even more remarkable, the flowers resembling as they do a "pelican in her piety" as the heralds

describe that bird when it is supposed to be feeding its young with the blood of its own breast. There is a singular conceit of Henry VIII., in which this fable of the pelican is concerned. When the enemies of Archbishop Cranmer were plotting his destruction, from which he was saved by the king's favour, the king gave, says Southey, at this time, "a memorable instance of his foresight, for he altered the three cranes sable on a field argent, which were part of Cranmer's paternal arms, into three pelicans, telling him, these birds should signify unto him that he ought to be ready, like them, to shed his blood for his young ones, brought up in the faith of Christ: 'for,' said the king, you are like to be tasted at length, if you stand to your tackling.'"

That the act of shedding its blood for its young by the pelican is a fable, is clear. While the female is hatching her eggs, the male bird brings fish to her in his pouch, and the young, when hatched, are carefully attended to by the parents, who feed them by pressing the pouch against the breast, so as to transfer the fish from the former into the throats of the young. This action carelessly observed has, no doubt, originated the fable alluded to.

The Pelican-like Oncidium (O. pelicanum), portrayed in our group, was obtained from a plant sent from Mexico by the Count Karwinsky, a valuable contributor of Mexican plants at Munich. The column has a very close resemblance to the pelican when pressing the breast as above described, in allusion to which, doubtless, the specific name has been given.

The Oncidium belongs to the Linnæan class Gynandria, and order Monandria, and to the natural order Orchidea.

An interesting species (O. bifolium) was imported from Monte Video; the labellum is large, of a beautiful rich yellow, the sepals and petals being small and brownish; the flowers remain long in perfection. It will succeed on a block, but does best in a basket, with sphagnum, and peat, and potsherds, suspended from the roof, in a shady part of the house, where there is plenty of heat and moisture during the growing season; afterwards it may be kept rather dry.

THE FUCHSIA-LIKE BEGONIA.

THE genus Begonia had its name given to it in honour of one Michael Begon, a native of France, who was born in 1638. He was Intendant of Marine, and a distinguished promoter of botanical science. The species are all ornamental plants, universally remarkable for the neatness of their foliage and their succulent habit.

The Tuberous Begonia (B. tuberosa) is a native of Amboyna, an island lying in the Eastern Archipelago, belonging to the Dutch, and remarkable as being devoted almost entirely to the growth of the clove, for which purpose it is admirably calculated. In order to confine its cultivation nearly exclusively to this island, they cause all clove-trees in other islands subject to them to be destroyed. This tree, the produce of which is of so great value, thrives most luxuriantly in a dark loamy soil, on hills, on sandy or hard clay soils, or on sedgy ground, and demands exceeding care in its treatment. It does not succeed well in situations near the sea. The clovetree bears a close resemblance to a pear-tree, growing from twenty to forty feet high. In the Moluccas it is said to yield fruit when seven or eight years old,

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