an introduction of the epiphytic Orchids of East Africa

Abstract

Over fifteen thousand species of orchids haye been described,the vast majority of them tropical , and the greater part of them epiphytic, that is, normally growing on trees without deriving sustenance from them. But little more than t n per cent of the majestic total belong to Tropical Africa and moreover, so far as is known at present, within that area ground orchids predominate over epiphytic in the proportion of more than three to one.