Digitalphilologie

Titel

Observations on the Orchidea. From the Latin of Alexander Baron Von Humboldt

Jahr

1819

Ort

London; New York City, New York

Nachweis

in: The Journal of Science and the Arts 6:11 (1819), S. 67–70.

Sprache

Englisch

Typografischer Befund

Antiqua; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung, Kapitälchen; Schmuck: Initialen.

Identifikation

Textnummer Druckausgabe: III.41
Dateiname: 1817-Pflanzenbilder_die_Orchiden-5-neu

Statistiken

Seitenanzahl:	4
Zeichenanzahl:	6990

Weitere Fassungen
	Pflanzenbilder. Die Orchiden-Familie (Stuttgart; Tübingen, 1817, Deutsch)
	Characteristic sketches of american vegetables (London, 1817, Englisch)
	Pflanzenbilder vom Herrn Baron Alexander von Humboldt (Berlin, 1817, Deutsch)
	Baron Humboldt on the bamboos of America (Edinburgh, 1817, Englisch)
	Observations on the Orchidea. From the Latin of Alexander Baron Von Humboldt (London; New York City, New York, 1819, Englisch)
	Recensio Palmarum ex opere Humboldtii et Bonplandii a Runthio edito, inscripto: Nova Genera et Species plantarum etc. Tom . I. p. 250–255 (Wien, 1821, Latein)

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Art. IX. Observations on the Orchideæ. From the Latinof Alexander Baron Von Humboldt.

The distinction among the vegetables of the Monocotyledo-nous division, in regard to beauty of form and variation of huein the inflorescence, is immense. Thus flowers, which in the Gramineæ, Cyperaceæ, Junceæ, and Palmæ, are minute, colour- |68|less, and inconspicuous; in the Orchideæ, on the other hand, areso rich in the variety of their tints, that they even exceed in thispoint of view the more showy beauty of the Amaryllideæ, Irideæ, and Scitamineæ. It is, however, in tropical regions that the Orchideæ form the principal decoration of the vegetable king-dom; and although in the continent of New Holland (where allthings are reported to be extraordinary) we find from Mr.Brown’s account, that fewer species of this order are foundwithin the tropics than between the latitudes of 33° and 35°;this must be accounted an exception to the general rule. Butwhen we are aware that the Epidendrous Orchideæ delight inmoisture and a mild climate, it is not difficult to conceive whythey should have extended themselves in the southern hemis-phere, so much towards the antarctic circle; for there theyfind in the winter season an atmosphere as temperate as on thedeclivities of the mountains within the tropics. It is not easy to estimate the harvest of Orchideæ that awaitsthe botanist in the sequestered and shady vallies of the Andés,where the climate is mild; as yet scarcely a twentieth part haveunfolded themselves to science. The whole of Europe does notpresent us with more than from 70 to 80 species; while on theother hand, the tropical portion of America, though so slightlyexplored in its mountainous tracts, has already afforded to thenaturalist 244 species, of which 61 that were unrecorded havebeen observed by Bonpland and myself. The Orchideæ of the Newand the Old World together, amount to about 700 species. Though the Orchideæ are dispersed through the equatorialregions of both the New and the Old Continent, from the level ofthe sea up to the height of from 1800 to 1900 fathoms, yet wemay safely assert, that in regard to number of species, colour ofblossom, fragrance, as well as fullness and brilliancy of foliage,that it is in the gorges of the Andés of Mexico, New Grenada,Quito, and Peru, between the heights of 800 and 1100 fathoms,where the mean annual temperature is 19°-17° of the centrigadethermometer, and soft breezes continually prevail, that theyexcel those of all the world besides. There are hardly any Orchideæ with spurred labels, in theequatorial regions; the types of such are peculiar to the temperate |69|and the frozen zones. To the northern hemisphere belong the genera Orchis, Habenaria, Cypripedium, Ophrys, Serapias,Epipactis, &c.; to the southern, those of Satyrium, Ptery-godium, Disperis, Corycium, Disa, Pterostylis, Cala-denia, &c. The equatorial Orchideæ are chiefly of the Epiden-drous section, of a peculiar appearance, and differing from thoseof the temperate and frigid regions, in being usually gregarious,and in growing upon trees, while in the latter regions they arefound insulated, and upon the ground. Some few species of thenorthern type, for instance, some belonging to Ophrys, Habe-naria, and Alstenteinia, are found within the tropics, notonly on the chines of the loftiest mountains, but sometimes like-wise in the plains. We know of only four species which arecommon to both the New and the Old World within the tem-perate zone; these are Satyrium viride, Orchis hyperborea, Neottia repens, and Neottia tortilis. It seems very astonish-ing to us that Dendrobium polystachion, should prove commonto the mountainous parts of Jamaica, the forests of Cayenne,and the Isle of France. Can these plants be really of thesame species? In the bulbs of most of the Orchideæ of hotclimates, a white starchy substance, generally of a nutritiousnature, is found; in some, as for instance, in Pleurothallis sagittifera, a viscous substance, applicable to the same purposesas carpenter’s glue. In general, the Monocotyledons abound in starch, which re-sides either in the fruit (as for example, in the Gramineæ, unripe Musæ, Palma Pihiguao) in the stem, (as in Sagus, and Mauritia,)or in the root (as in the Aroideæ, Taccæ, Orchideæ, Maranta indica, Liliaceæ, Dioscorideæ). On the other hand, sugar is con-tained in the juices of the Gramineæ, of the Argave of Palma Areng, and the unripe fruit of the Musa or plantain. And whenwe reflect that the chymists of the present day have ascertainedthat the proportions of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, are nearlythe same in both sugar and starch, and that malted barley formsa sweet wort, we shall not be surprised to find them componentparts of the same plant, nor even of the same parts of a plant.The older writers should seem to have had a kind of presentimentof the transmutation of starch into sugar, as when Prosper |70|Alpinus broached the idea, that the plantain derived its originfrom a sugar-cane ingrafted on the root of the Colocasia; andAbd-Allatif, that it sprung from a stone of the date whichhad germinated in the root of the Colocasia. Gluten is asso-ciated with the starch in the seed of the corn-plants, and is theprincipal cause of their being in the shape of bread, the staff ofhuman life. The glutinous liquid deposited in the bulbs of the Orchideæ, is as distinct from the true gluten of the corn-plants,as the bird-lime produced from the bark of the holly and themisletoe berries is from that. A very pungent aroma is found inthe flowers of the Lilia, Asphodeli, and Narcissi; as in the stigmaof the Crocus or Saffron, in the fruit of Vanilla and Amomum Cardomomum; in the root of the Cannæ (ginger;) and inthe whole tribe of Peperomiæ. Acids, bitters, resin, camphor,poisons, tanning matter, and vegetable milk are seldom or everfound in the Monocotyledons. Poisonous matters in this pri-mary division of vegetables are confined to the Colchicaceæ and Amaryllideæ: while the antidote is found only in the juice ofthat genus of palm which we have named Kunthia; thebitter principle to Scilla and the Smilaceæ; gum-resin to Aloe. An astringent principle, not yet well determined, be-longs to Dracæna Draco and the Agave called Cocuiza inthe Caraccas, and their juices are used as a caustic in surgery.I cannot conceive how it could have occurred to Fourcroy toaffirm, that the Monocotyledons never produced any oil, whenwe see that within the tropics the Cocoa-palm is cultivated for thesame purpose as the olive tree with us. It was acutely observedby Decandolle, and confirmed by the experiments of Mr. An-drew Knight, that in the Monocotyledons, where the reducentvessels are dispersed throughout the entire trunk of the plant, anddo not coalesce into a bark or rind, that nearly all those qualitiesare wanting, with which nature has usually endowed the bark ofthe Dicotyledons.

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