Section 6 of About Orchids a Chat The genus Kipropidium, ladies' slipper, is perhaps more widely scattered over the globe than any other class of plant. I at least am acquainted with none that approaches it, from China to Peru, nay beyond, from Archangel to Torres Straits, but it is wise to avoid these semi-poetic descriptions. In brief, if we accept Africa and the temperate parts of Australia, there is no large tract of country in the world that does not produce kipropidiums, and few authorities doubt that a larger acquaintance with those realms will bring them under the rule. We have a species in England, kipropidium calciolus, by no means insignificant. It can be purchased from the dealers, but it is almost extinct in this country now. America furnishes a variety of species, which ought to be hardy. They will bear a frost below zero, but our winter damp is intolerable. Mr. Godsef tells me that he has seen kipropidium spectabile growing like any waterweed in the bogs of New Jersey, where it is frozen hard, roots and all, for several months of the year. But very few survive the season in this country, even if protected. Those fine specimens so common at our spring shows are imported in the dry state. From the United States also we get the charming sea candidum, sea paviflorum, sea pubescens, and many more less important, calendar and Siberia furnish sea gutetum, sea macranthum, and others. I saw in Russia and brought home a magnificent species, tall and stately, bearing a great golden flower, which is not known in the trade, but they all rotted gradually. Therefore I do not recommend these fine outstore varieties, which the inexperienced are apt to think so easy. At the same cost, others may be brought which, coming from the highlands of hot countries, are used to a moderate stamp in winter. Almost of these, perhaps the oldest of cool orchids in cultivation, is Cipropidium insigni, from Nepal. Everyone knows its original type, which has grown so common that I remarked a healthy pot at a window-garden exhibition some years ago in Westminster. One may say that this, the early and familiar form, has no value at present, so many fine varieties have been introduced. A reader may form a notion of the difference, when I state that a small plant of exceptional merit sold for thirty guineas a short time ago, it was Cipropidium insigni, but glorified. This ranks among the fascination of orchid culture. You may buy a lot of some common kind imported, at a price representing coppers for each individual, and among them may appear when they come to bloom an eccentricity which sells for a hundred pounds or more. The experienced collector has a volume of such legends. There is another side to the question truly, but it does not personally interest the class which I address. To make a choice among numberless stories of this sort, we may take the instance of Cipropidium Spicerianum. It turned up among a quantity of Cipropidium insigni, in the greenhouse of Mrs Spicer, a lady residing at Twickenham. Astonished at the appearance of this swan among her ducks, she asked Mr Veich to look at it. He was delighted to pay seventy guineas down for such a prize. Cipropidiums propagate easily, no more examples came into the market, and for some years this lovely species was a treasure for dukes and millionaires. It was no secret that the precious novelty came from Mrs Spicer's greenhouse, but to call on a strange lady, and demand how she became possessed of a certain plant is not a course of action that commends itself to respectable businessmen. The circumstances gave no clue. Mrs Spicer were and are large manufacturers of paper. There is no visible connection between paper and Indian orchids. By discrete inquiries, however, it was ascertained that one of the lady's sons had a tea plantation in Assam. No more was needed. By the next mail, Mr Forsterman started for that vague destination, and in process of time reached Mr Spicer's bungalow. There he asked for a job. None could be found for him. But tea-planters are hospitable, and the stranger was invited to stop for a day or two. But he could not lead the conversation towards orchids, perhaps because his efforts were too clever, perhaps because his host took no interest in the subject. One day, however, Mr Spicer's manager invited him to go shooting, and casually remarked, We shall pass the spot where I found those orchids they're making such a fuss about at home. Be sure, Mr Forsterman was alert that morning. Thus put upon the track he discovered quantities of it, bade the tea-planter adieu, and went to work. But in the very moment of triumph, a tiger barred the way. His coolies bolted, and nothing would persuade them to go further. Mr Forsterman was no chicory, but he felt himself called upon to uphold the cause of science and the honour of England at this juncture. In great agitation he went for that feline, and in short its skin still adorns Mrs Sander's drawing-room. Thus it happened that on a certain Thursday a small pot of sea spicerianum was sold, as usual, for sixty guineas at Stephens's. On the Thursday following, all the world could buy fine plants at a guinea. Cipromedium is the favourite orchid of the day. It has every advantage except, to my perverse mind, brilliancy of colour. None show a whole tone, even the lovely sea neveum is not pure white. My views, however, find no backing. At all other points the guineas deserves to be a favourite. In the first place it is the most interesting of all orchids to science. Then its endless variations of form, its astonishing oddities, its wide range of hues, its easy culture, its readiness to hybridise and to ripen seed, the certainty, by comparison, of rearing the proceeds. Each of these merits appeals to one or other of orchid growers. Many of the species which come from torrid lands, indeed, are troublesome. But with such we are not concerned. The cool varieties will do well anywhere, provided they receive water enough in summer, and not too little in winter. I do not speak of the American and Siberian classes which are nearly hopeless for the amateur, nor of the Hong Kong Cipropidium perpuratum, a very puzzling example. On the role of martyrs to orchidology, Mr. Pierce stands high. To him we owe, among many fine things, the hybrid begonias, which are becoming such favourites for bedding and other purposes. He discovered the three original types, parents of the innumerable garden flowers, now on sale, begonia piaceae, bee viaceae, and bee boliviensis. It was his great luck and great honour to find mastervalia viaceae, so long, so often, so laboriously, searched for from that day to this, but never even heard of. To collect another shipment of that glorious orchid, Mr. Pierce sails for Peru, in the service, I think, of Mr. Bull. Unhappily, for us all, as well as for himself, he was detained at Panama. Somewhere in those parts there is a magnificent kipropidium, with which we are acquainted only by the dried inflorescence, named planifolium. The poor fellow could not resist this temptation. They told him at Panama that no white man had returned from the spot, but he went on. The Indians brought him back some days or weeks later, without the prize, and he died on arrival. Oncidiums also are a product of the New World exclusively. In fact, of the four classes most useful to amateurs, three belong wholly to America, and the fourth in great part. I resist the temptation to include mastervalia, because that genus is not so perfectly easy as the rest. But if it be added, nine-tenths, assuredly, of the plants in our cool house come from the west. Among the special merits of the Oncidium is its colour. I have heard thoughtless persons complain that they are all yellow, which, as a statement of fact, is near enough to the truth, for about three-fourths may be so described roughly. But this dispensation is another proof of nature's kindly regard for the interests of our science. A clear, strong, golden yellow is the colour that would have been wanting in our cool houses had not the Oncidium supplied it. Shades of lemon and buff are frequent among Adontaglossums, but in a rough general way of speaking they have a white ground. Mastervalias give us scarlet and orange and purple, like Astes, green and dull yellow, Sophronotus, crimson, mesospinidium, rose, and so forth. Blue must not be looked for. Even counting the new utricularia for an orchid, as most people do, there are, I think, but five species that will live among us at present in all the prodigious family, showing this colour, and every one of them is very hot. Thus it appears that the Oncidium fills a gap and how gloriously. There is no such pure gold in the scheme of the universe, as it displays under fifty shapes, wondrously varied. Thus Oncidium macranthum. One is continually tempted to exclaim, as one or other glory of the orchid world recurs to mind, that it is the supreme triumph of floral beauty. I have sinned thus, and I know it. Therefore let the reader seek an opportunity to behold O Macanthrum, and to judge for himself. But it seems to me that nature gives us a hint. As though proudly conscious what a marvel it will unfold, this superb flower often demands nine months to perfect itself. Dr. Wallace told me of an instance in his collection where eighteen months elapsed from the appearance of the spike until the opening of the first bloom. But it lasts a time proportionate. Nature forestalled the dreams of ascetic colourists when she designed Oncidium macranthum. Thus, and not otherwise, would the thoughtful of them arrange a harmony in gold and bronze? But nature, with characteristic indifference to the fancies of mankind, hid her chef d'oeuvre in the wilds of Ecuador. Hardly less striking, however, though perhaps less beautiful, are its sisters of the small lipped species. Oncidium ceratum, O superbians, and O scoptum. This last is rarely seen. As with others of its class, the spike grows very long, twelve feet, perhaps, if it were allowed to stretch. The flowers are small comparatively, clear, bronze-brown, highly polished, so closely and daintily frilled round the edges that a fairy-goffering iron could not give more regular effects, and outlined by a narrow band of gold. Oncidium ceratum has a much larger bloom, but less compact, rather fly away indeed. Its sepals widen ingrassfully from a narrow neck. Excessively curious is the disposition of the petals, which close their tips to form a circle of brown and gold around the column. The purpose of this extraordinary arrangement, unique among all kids, I believe, will be discovered one day, for purpose there is no doubt. To judge by analogy it may be supposed that the insect upon which oncidium ceratum depends for fertilization likes to stand upon this ring while thrusting its proboscis into the nectaree. The fourth of these fine species, oncidium superbians, ranks among the grandest of flowers. Knowing its own value it rarely consents to a bludge. The dusty green sepals are margined with yellow, petals white, clouded with pale purple, lip very small, of course purple, surmounted by a great golden crest. Most strange and curious is oncidium foscatum, of which the shape defies description. Seen from the back it shows a floriated cross of equal limbs, but in front the nethermost is hidden by a spreading lip, very large proportionately. The prevailing tint is a done purple, but each arm has a broad white tip. Done purple also is the center of the labellum, edged with a distinct band of lighter hue, which again towards the margin becomes white. These changes of tone are not gradual, but as clear as a brush could make them. Botanists must long to dissect this extraordinary flower, but the opportunity seldom occurs. It is desperately puzzling to understand how nature has packed away the component parts of its inflorescence, so as to resolve them into four narrow arms and a labellum. But the colouring of this plant is not always dull. In the small botanic garden at Florence, by Santa Maria Maggiore, I remarked with astonishment an oncidium foscatum, of which the lip was scarlet crimson, and the other tints bright to match. That collection is admirably grown, but orchids are still scarce in Italy. The society did not know what a prize it had secured by chance. The genus oncidium has perhaps more examples of a startling combination in hues than any other, but one must speak thoughtfully and cautiously upon such points. I have not to deal with culture, but one hint may be given. Gardeners who have a miscellaneous collection to look after often set themselves against an experiment in orchid growing because these plants suffer terribly from greenfly and other pests, and will not bear smoking. To keep them clean and healthy by washing demands labour for which they have no time. This is a very reasonable objection, but though the smoke of tobacco is actually a ruination, no plant, whatever, suffers from the steam thereof. An ingenious Frenchman has invented and patented in England lately a machine called the Thanatophore, which I confidently recommend. It can be obtained from M. B. S. Williams of Upper Holloway. The Thanatophore destroys every insect within reach of its vapour, accepting curiously enough scaly bug, which however does not persecute cool orchids much. The machine may be obtained in different sizes through any good iron monger. To sum up, these plants ask nothing in return for the measureless enjoyments they give, but light, shade from the summer sun, protection from the winter frost, moisture, and brains. Iron allowed to print a letter which bears upon several points to which I have alluded. It is not cheerful reading for the enthusiast. He will be apt to cry, would that the difficulties and perils were infinitely graver, so grave that the collecting grounds might have a rest for twenty years. January 19, 1893 Dear sir, I have received your two letters, asking for Catalea l'Orenziana, Pancratium guianenzi, and Catacetam piliatum. Kindly excuse my answering your letters only today, but I have been away in the interior and on my return was sick, beside other business taking up my time. I was unable to write until today. Now, let me give you some information concerning orchid collecting in this colony. Six or seven years ago, just when the gold industry was starting, very few people ever ventured into the far interior. Boats, riverhands, and Indians could be hired at ridiculously low prices, and travelling and bartering paid. Wages for Indians being about a shilling per day and all found, the same for riverhands, captains and bosons to pilot the boat through the rapids, up and down, for sixty-four cents a day. Today you have got to pay sixty-four to eighty cents per day for Indians and riverhands, captains and bosons, two dollars the former and one dollar fifty the latter per day, and then you often cannot get them. Boat hire used to be eight dollars to ten dollars for a big boat, for three to four months. Today, five dollars, six dollars, and seven dollars per day, and all through the rapid development of the gold industry. As you can calculate twenty-five days river travel to get within reach of the savanna lands, you can reckon what the expenses must be, and then again about five to seven days coming down the river and a couple of days to lay over. Then you must count two trips like this, one to bring you up and one to bring you down three months after when you return with your collection. Besides this you run the risk of losing your boat in the rapids either way, which happens not very unfrequently either going or coming, and we have not only to record the loss of several boats with goods, etc. every month, but generally to record the loss of life. Only two cases happening last month, in one case seven, in the other twelve men losing their lives. Besides, river hands and blacks will not go up further than the boats can travel, and nothing will induce them to go among the Indians. Being afraid of getting poisoned by Indians, Kaiserimas, or strangled, so you have to rely utterly on Indians which you often cannot get as the district of Rurama is very poorly inhabited, and most of the Indians died by smallpox and measles breaking out among them four years ago, and those that survived left the district. And you will find whole districts nearly uninhabited. About five years ago I went up with Mr. Osmers to Rurama, but he broke down before we reached the savannah. He lay there for a week, and I gave him up. He recovered however, and dragged himself into the savannah near Rurama, about three days distant from it, where I left him. Here we found and made a splendid collection of about three thousand first-class plants of different kinds. While I was going up to Rurama he stayed in the savannah, still too sick to go further. At Rurama I collected everything except Catlea Lorenziana, which was utterly rooted out already by former collectors. On my return to Osmers' camp I found him more dead than alive, thrown down by a new attack of sickness, but not alone that I also found him abandoned by most of our Indians, who had fled on account of the Canaima having killed three of their number. So Mr. Osmers, who got soon better, and I made up our baskets with plants and made everything ready. Our Indians returning partly, I sent him ahead with as many loads as we could carry, I staying behind with the rest of baskets of plants. Had all our Indians come back we would have been all right, but this not being the case I had to stay until the Indians returned and fetched me off. After this we got back all right. This was before the sickness broke out among the Indians. Last year I went up with Mr. Chroma, who meant to be going up river while I was coming down. So I joined him. We got up all right to the river's head, but here our troubles began as we got only about eight Indians to go on with us who had worked in the gold diggings and no others could be had, the district being abandoned. We had to pay them half a dollar a day to carry loads so we pushed on carrying part of our loads leaving the rest of our cargo behind until we reached the savannah when we had to send them back several times to get the balance of our goods. From the time we reached the savannah we were starving more or less as we could procure only very little provisions. We hunted all about for cat-lail or ansiana and got only about fifteen hundred or so it's growing only here and there. At Roraima we did not hunt at all as the district is utterly rubbed out by the Indians. We were about fourteen days at Roraima and got plenty of utracularia cambeliana u humboldtii and u montana also zygopetalum cipripedium linleanum oncidium nigratum only fifty, very rare now cipripedium shomburg cianum zygopetalum burgii and in fact all that is to be found on and about Roraima except the cat-lail or ansiana also plenty others as sobralia, liliastrum etc. So our collection was not a very great one but the hardest trouble now through the want of Indians to carry the loads. Beside this the rainy weather set in and our loads suffered badly for all the care we took of them besides the Indians got disagreeable having to go back several times to bring the remaining baskets. Nevertheless we got down as far as the curubing mountains. Up to this time we were more or less always starving arrived at the curubing mountains procured a scan supply of provisions but lost nearly all of them in a small creek what was saved was spoiling under our eyes it being then that the rainy season had fully started drenching us from morning to night it took us nine days to get our loads over the mountain where our boat was to reach us to take us down river and we were for two and a half days entirely without food besides the plants being damaged by stress of weather the Indians had opened the baskets and thrown partly the loads away not being able to carry the heavy soaked through baskets over the mountains so making us lose the best of our plants arrived at our landing we had to wait for our boat which arrived a week later in consequence of the river being high and of course shorter provisions still we got away with what we had of our loads until we reached the first gold places kept by a friend of mine who supplied us with food thereafter we started for town halfway at Kapuri Falls one of the most dangerous we swamped down over a rock and so we lost some of our things still saved all our plants so they lay for a few hours under water with the boat after this we reached town in safety so after coming home we found on packing up that we had only about nine hundred plants that is Katlea Lorenziana of which about one third good one third medium and one third poor quality this trip took us about three and a half months and cost over two thousand five hundred dollars besides I having poisoned my leg on a rotten stump which I'd run up in my foot lay for four months suffering terrible pain you will of course see from this that orchid hunting is no pleasure as you of course know but what I wanted to point out to you is that Katlea Lorenziana is very rare in the interior now the river expenses fearfully high in fact unreasonably high on account of the gold digging farmers getting sixty four cents to one dollar per day and all found no Indians to be got and those that you can get at ridiculous prices and getting them too by working on places where they build and thatch houses and clear the ground from underbush and as huntsmen for gold diggers even if Mr. Kromer had succeeded to get three thousand or four thousand fine Katlea Lorenziana it would have been of no value to us as we could not have got anybody to carry them to the river where a boat could reach besides this I must also tell you that there is a license to be paid out here if you want to collect orchids amounting to one hundred dollars which Mr. Kromer had to pay and also an export tax duty of two cents per piece so that orchid collecting is made a very expensive affair besides its success being very doubtful even if a man is very well acquainted with Indian life and has visited the savannah reaches year after year we spent something over two thousand five hundred to two thousand nine hundred dollars including Mr. Kromer's and Stigfer's passage out on our last expedition if you want to get any Lorenziana you will have to send yourself and as I said before the results will be very doubtful as far as I myself am concerned I am interested besides my baking business in the gold diggings and shall go up to the savannah in a few months I can give you first class references if you should be willing to send an expedition and we could come to some arrangement at least you would save the expenses of the passage of one of your collectors I may say that I am quite conversant with the way of packing orchids and handling them as well for travel as shipment kindly excuse therefore my lengthy letter and its bad writing and if you should be inclined to go in for an expedition just send me a list of what you require and I will tell you whether the plants are found along the route of travel that the savannah visited as for instance Catlea Superba does not grow at all in the district where Catlea Lorenziana is to be found but far further south before closing I beg you to let me know the prices of about 25 of the best of and prettiest South American orchids which I want for my own collection as Catlea Medelliae Catlea Triane Odontoglossum Crispum Miltonia Vexilaria Catlea Labiata and so on I shall wait your answer as soon as possible and send you a list by last mail of what is to be got in this colony we also found on our last list something new a very large bulb Donchidium or maybe Catacetam on the top of Roraima where we spent a night but got only two specimens one of which got lost and the other one I left in the hands of Mr. Rodway but so we tried our best each decade having been too seriously damaged to revive and flower and so enable us to see what it was it's not being in flower when found awaiting your kind reply yours truly, sealer P.S. if you should send out one of your collectors or require any information I shall be glad to give it one of the most experienced collectors Mr. Oversleith writes from the Rio de Yanayaka January 1893 here it is absolutely necessary that one goes himself into the woods ahead of the peons who are quite cowards to enter the woods and not altogether without reason for the larger part of them gets sick here and it is very hard to enter nearly impenetrable and full of insects which make fresh coming people to get cracked and mad I have from the waist down not a place to put in a shilling piece which is not a wound through the very small red spider and other insects also my people are the same of the five men I took out two have got fever already and one ran back tomorrow I expect other peons but not a single one from Manga Bamba it is a trouble to get men who will come into the woods and I cannot have more than eight or ten to work with because when I should not be continually behind them or ahead they do nothing it is not a question of money to do good here but merely luck and the way one treats people the peons will come out less for their salaries than for good and plenty of food which is very difficult to find in these scarce times the plants are here one by one and we have got but one tree with three plants they are on the highest and biggest trees and these must be cut down with axes below are all shrubs full of climbers and lianas about a finger width every step must be cut to advance and the ground cleared below the high trees in order to spy the branches it is a very difficult job nature has well protected this Ketlaya nobody can like this kind of work the poor man ends abruptly I will write when I can the mosquitoes don't leave me a moment the end of section six of about orchids a chat section seven of about orchids a chat this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Peter Yersley about orchids a chat by Frederick Boyle chapter five section one warm orchids by the expression warm we understand that condition which is technically known as intermediate it is waste of time to ask at this day why a Latin combination should be employed when there is an English monosyllable exactly equivalent we at least will use our mother tongue warm orchids are those which like a minimum temperature while growing of 60 degrees while resting of 55 as for the maximum it signifies little in the former case but in the latter during the months of rest it cannot be allowed to go beyond 60 degrees for any length of time without mischief these conditions mean in effect that the house must be warmed during nine months of the twelve in this realm of England hot orchids demand a fire the whole year round saving a few very rare nights and swelters in tropical discomfort upon this dry subject of temperature however I would add one word of encouragement for those who are not willing to pay a heavy bill for coke the cool house in general requires a fire at night until June the first under that condition if it faced the south in a warm locality very many genera and species classed as intermediate should be so thoroughly started that it is withdrawn that they will do excellently unless the season be unusual warm orchids come from a subtropic region or from the mountains of a hotter climate where the kinsfolk dwelling in the plains defy the thermometer just as in subtropic lands warm species occupy the lowlands while the heights furnish adontoglossums and such lovers of a chilly atmosphere there are however some warm adontoglossums notable among them o vexilarium which botanists class with the miltonias this species is very fashionable and I give it the place of honour but not in my own view for its personal merits the name is so singularly appropriate that one would like to hear the inventors reasons for transfiguring it vexilum we know and vexilarius but vexilarium goes beyond my Latin however it is an intelligible word and those acquainted with the appearance of regimental colours in old Rome perceive its fitness at a glance the flat bloom seems to hang suspended from its centre just as the vexilum figures in barrelief on the arch of Antoninas for example to my mind the colouring is insipid as a rule and the general effect stark fashion in orchids has little reference to taste I repeat with emphasis as a rule for some priceless specimens are no less than astounding in their blaze of colour the quintessence of a million uninteresting blooms the poorest of these plants have merit no doubt for those who can accommodate giants they grow fast and big there are specimens in this country a yard across which display a hundred and fifty or two hundred flowers open at the same time for months a superb show they make rising over the pale sea green foliage four spikes perhaps from a single bulb but this is a beauty of general effect which must not be analysed as I think a dondoglossum vexilarium is brought from Colombia there are two forms the one small, evenly red flowering in autumn was discovered by Frank Claboch one of the famous ruzzle on the Dagua river in Antioquia for eight years he persisted in dispatching small quantities to Europe though every plant died at length a safer method of transmission was found but simultaneously poor Claboch himself succumbed it is an awful country perhaps the wettest under the sun though a favourite hunting ground of collectors now for cat layers of value come from hence this precious a dondoglott there are still no means of transport saving Indians and canoes a dondoglossum vexilarium would not be thought costly if buyers knew how rare it is how expensive to get and how terribly difficult to bring home forty thousand pieces were dispatched to Mr. Sander in one consignment he hugged himself with delight when three thousand proved to have some trace of vitality Mr. Watson, assistant curator at Q recalls an amusing instance of the value and the mystery attached to this species so late as 1867 in that year Professor Rachenbach described it for the first time he tells how a friend lent him the bloom upon a negative promise under five heads first not to show it to anyone else two not to speak much about it three not to take a drawing of it four not to have a photograph made five not to look oftener than three times at it by the by Mr. Watson gives the credit of the first discovery to the late Mr. Bowman but I venture to believe that my account is exact in reference to the Antioquia variety at least the other form occurs in the famous district of Frontino about two hundred and fifty miles due north of the first habitat and shows savants would add of course a striking difference in the geographical distribution of species will be found the key to whole volumes of mystery that perplex us now I once saw three Adontoglossums ranged side by side which even an expert would pronounce mere varieties of the same plant if he were not familiar with them. Adontoglossum Williamsy Brandy and Adontoglossum sleeperianum the middle one everybody knows by sight at least a big stark spread eagle flower gambos yellow mottled with red brown vastly effective in the mass but individually vulgar on one side was Adontoglossum Williamsy essentially the same in flower and bulb and growth but smaller opposite stood Adontoglossum sleeperianum only to be distinguished as smaller still but both these latter rank as species they are separated from the common type O. Grandy by nearly 10 degrees of latitude and 10 degrees of longitude nor we might almost make an affidavit do any intermediate forms exist in the space between and those degrees are subtropical by so much more significant than an equal distance in our zone instances of the same class and more surprising are found in many genera of orchid the frontino vexilarium grows cooler has a much larger bloom varies in hue from purist white to deepest red and flowers in May or June the most glorious of these things however is Adontoglossum vexilarium superbum a plant of the greatest rarity conspicuous for its blotch of deep purple in the center of the lip and its little dot of the same on each wing doubtless this is a natural hybrid betwixt the Antioquia form and Adontoglossum Rosliii which is its neighbor the chance of finding a bit of superbum in a bundle of the ordinary kind lends peculiar excitement to a sale of these plants such luck first occurred to Mr. Bath in Stevens' auction rooms he paid half a crown for a very weakly fragment he put it round, flowered it and received a prize for good gardening in the shape of seventy-two pounds cheerfully paid by Sir Trevor Lawrence for a plant unique at that time I am reminded of another little story among a great number of Kipropidium insignia received at St. Albans and established Mr. Sander noted one presently of which the flower stalk was yellow instead of brown as is usual sharp eyes are a valuable item of the orchid-grower's stocking trade for the smallest peculiarity among such sportive objects should not be neglected carefully he put the yellow stalk aside the only one among thousands one may say myriads since Kipropidium insignia is one of our oldest and commonest orchids and it never showed this phenomenon before in due course the flower opened proved to be all golden Mr. Sander cut his plant in two sold half for seventy-five pounds to a favoured customer and the other half publicly for one hundred guineas one of the purchasers has divided his plant now and sold two bits at a hundred guineas another piece was brought back by Mr. Sander who wanted it for hybridising at two hundred and fifty guineas not a bad profit for the buyer who has still two plants left another instance occurs to me while I write such legends of shrewdness worthily rewarded fascinate a poor journalist who has the audacity to grow orchids Mr. Harvey, solicitor of Liverpool strolling through the houses at St. Albans on July the 24th, 1883 remarked a plant of Loelia Ankeps which had the ring mark on its pseudo-bulb as usual there might be some meaning in that eccentricity he thought paid the two guineas for the little thing and on December the 1st, 1888 sold it back to Mr. Sander for two hundred pounds it proved to be Loelia Ankeps Aimsiana the grandest form of L. Ankeps yet discovered rosy white with petals deeply splashed thus named after F. L. Amis an American amateur such pleasing opportunities might arise for you or me any day the first name that arises to most people in thinking of warm orchids is Catlea the genus Adontoglossum alone has more representatives under cultivation sixty species of Catlea are grown by amateurs who pay special attention to these plants as for the number of varieties in a single species most forty, another thirty several pass the round dozen they are exclusively American but they flourish all over the enormous space between Mexico and the Argentine Republic the genus is not a favourite of my own for somewhat of the same reason which qualifies my regard for Adontoglossum vexilarium Catleas are so obtrusively beautiful they have such great flowers which they thrust upon the eye with such assurance of admiration theirs is a style of effect I refer to the majority which may be called infantine such as an intelligent and tasteful child might conceive if he had no fine sense of colour and were too young to distinguish a showy from a charming form but I say no more the history of orchids long established is uncertain but I believe that the very first Catlea which appeared in Europe was Catlea violacea lodejasi imported by the great firm whose name it bears to which we owe such a heavy debt two years later came Catlea labiata of which more must be said than Catlea mocii from Caracas forth Catlea trianei named after Colonel Tryon of Tulema in the United States of Columbia Tryon well deserved immortality for he was a native of that secluded land and a botanist it is a natural supposition that his orchids must be the commonest of weeds in its home seeing how all Europe is stocked with it and America also rash people might say there are millions in cultivation but it seems likely that C. trianei was never very frequent and at the present time assuredly it is so scarce that collectors are not sent after it probably the Colonel like many other savants was an excellent man of business and he established a corner when he saw the chance C. mocii stands in the same situation or indeed worse it can scarcely be found now these instances convey a serious warning in 70 years we have destroyed the native stock of two orchids both so very free and propagating that they have an exceptional advantage in the struggle for existence how long can rare species survive when the demand strengthens and widens year by year while the means of communication and transport become easier all over the world other instances will be mentioned in their place island species are doomed unless like lowelia elegans they have inaccessible crags on which to find refuge it is only a question of time that we may hope that governments will interfere before it is too late already Mr Burbage has suggested that someone who takes an interest in orchids should establish a farm plantation here and there about the world where such plants grow naturally and devote himself to careful hybridization on the spot one might make as much, he writes by breeding orchids as by breeding cattle and of the two in the long run I should prefer the orchid farm this scheme will be carried out one day, not so much for the purpose of hybridization as for plain market gardening and the sooner the better the prospect is still more dark for those who believe as many do that no epifital orchid under any circumstances can be induced to establish itself permanently in our greenhouses as it does at home doubtless they say it is possible to grow them and to flower them by assiduous care upon a scale which is seldom approached under the rough treatment of nature but they are dying from year to year in spite of appearances that it is so in a few cases can hardly be denied but seeing how many plants which have not changed hands since their establishment twenty or thirty or forty years ago have grown continually bigger and finer it seems much more probable that our ignorance is to blame for the loss of those species which suddenly collapse Sir Trevor Lawrence observed the other day with regard to the longevity of orchids I have one which I know to have been in this country for more than fifty years probably even twenty years longer than that Renanthera coxinia the finest specimens of catlaya in Mr Stevenson Clark's houses have been grown on from small pieces imported twenty years ago if there were more collections which could boast say half a century of uninterrupted attention we should have material for forming a judgement as a rule the dates of purchase or establishment were not carefully preserved till late years but there is one species of catlaya which must needs have seventy years of existence in Europe since it had never been rediscovered till 1890 when we see a pot of sea labiata the true autumn flowering variety more than two years old we know that the very plant itself must have been established about 1818 or at least its immediate parent for no seedling has been raised to public knowledge in avowing a certain indifference to catlayas I referred to the bulk of course the most gorgeous, the stateliest the most imperial of all flowers on this earth is catlaya dowiana unless it be catlaya aurea a geographical variety of the same they dwell a thousand miles apart at least the one in Colombia the other in Costa Rica and neither occurs so far as is known in the great intervening region even a connecting link has been discovered but the Atlantic coast of Central America is hardly explored much less examined in my time it was held from Cape Comarin to Chargris by independent tribes of savages not independent in fact alone but in name also the mosquito indians are recognised by Europe as free the guatusos kept a space of many hundred miles from which no white man had returned the talamancas though not so unfriendly were only known by the report of adventurous peddlers I made an attempt comparatively spirited to organise an exploring party for the benefit of the guatusos but no single volunteer answered our advertisements in San Jose de Costa Rica I have lived to congratulate myself on that disappointment since my day a road has been cut through their wilds to Limón certain luckless Britons having found the money for a railway but an engineer who visited the coast but two years ago informs me that no one ever wandered into the bush collectors have not been there assuredly so there may be connecting links between Catalea da Uyana and Sea Oria in that vast wilderness but it is quite possible there are none words could not picture the glory of these marvels in each the scheme of colour is yellow and crimson important modifications yellow is the ground all through in Catalea Uyana sepals, petals and lip unbroken in the two former in the latter superbly streaked with crimson but Catalea da Uyana shows crimson pencilings on its sepals while the ground colour of the lip is crimson broadly lined and reticulated with gold imagine four of these noble flowers on one stalk each half a foot across beyond the power of imagination Catalea da Uyana was discovered by Warshawik about 1850 and he sent home accounts too enthusiastic for belief, steady going Britons utterly refused to credit such a marvel his few plants died and there was an end of it for the time I may mention an instance of more recent date where the eyewitness of a collector was flatly rejected at home Monsieur Saint-Léger residing at Assange the capital of Paraguay wrote a warm description of an orchid in those parts to scientific friends the account reached England and was treated with derision Monsieur Saint-Léger, nettle sent some dried flowers for a testimony but the mind of the orchidaceous public was made up in 1883 he brought a quantity of plants and put them up at auction nobody in particular would buy so those reckless simple or trusting persons who invested a few shillings in a bundle had all the fun to themselves a few months afterwards when the beautiful Oncidium Jonesianum appeared to confound the unbelieving it must be added however that orchid growers may well become an incredulous generation when their judgment leads them wrong we hear of it the tale is published and outsiders mock but these gentlemen receive honest enough for the most part much experience and some loss have made them rather cynical when a new wonder is announced the particular case of Monsieur Saint-Léger was complicated by the extreme resemblance which the foliage of Oncidium Jonesianum bears to that of Oncidium Qiboletum a species almost worthless unfortunately the beautiful thing declines to live with us as yet Catlea Daouiana was rediscovered by Mr. Archer when collecting birds it must have been a grand moment for Warsawix when the horticultural world was convulsed by its appearance in bloom Catlea Aurea had no adventures of this sort Mr. Wallace found it in 1868 in the province of Antioquia and again on the west bank of the Magdalena but it is very rare this species is persecuted in its native home by a beetle that journeys it to Europe not infrequently in the form of eggs no doubt a more troublesome alien is the fly which haunts Catlea Mandeliii and for a long time prejudiced growers against that fine species until in fact they had made a practical and rather costly study of its habits an experienced grower detects the presence of this enemy at a glance it pierces an eye a back one in general happily and deposits an egg in the very centre presently this growth begins to swell in a manner that delights the ingenuous horticulturist until you remark that its length does not keep pace with its breadth but one remedy has yet been discovered cutting off any suspected growth we understand that Catlea Mandeliii is as safe to import as any other species unless it be gathered at the wrong time foot's note I have learned by a doleful experience that this fly commonly called the weevil is quite at home on Loelia Perpureta in fact it will prey on any Catlea end foot's note among the most glorious rarest and most valuable of Catlea's is Catlea hardiana doubtless a natural hybrid of Catlea aurea with Catlea Gages Sanderiana few of us have yet seen it 200 guinea plants are not common spectacles it has an immense flower rose purple the lip purple magenta veined with gold Catlea Sanderiana offers an interesting story Mr. Mao one of Mr. Sander's collectors was dispatched to Bogota in search of Odontoglossum Crispum while tramping through the woods he came across a very large Catlea at rest and gathered such pieces as fell in his way attaching so little importance to them however that he did not name the matter in his reports four cases Mr. Mao brought home with his stock of Odontoglossums which were opened in due course of business we can quite believe that it was one of the stirring moments of Mr. Sander's life the plants bore many dry specimens of last years in fluorescence displaying such extraordinary size has proved the variety to be new and there is no large Catlea of indifferent colouring the plant of that character unannounced undescribed is an experience without parallel for half a century Mr. Mao was sent back by next mail to secure every fragment he could find meantime those in hand were established and Mr. Breimer MP bought one Mr. Breimer is immortalised by the dendrobe which bears his name the new Catlea proved kindly and just before Mr. Mao returned with some thousands of its like Mr. Breimer's purchase broke into bloom that must have been another glorious moment for Mr. Sander when the great bud unfolded displaying sepals and petals of the rosiest, freshest softest pink 11 inches across and a crimson labellum exquisitely shown up by a broad patch of white on either side of the throat Mr. Breimer was good enough to lend his specimen for the purpose of advertisement and Monsieur Stevens enthusiastically fixed a green bay's partition across their rooms as a background for the wondrous novelty what excitement reigned there on the great day is not to be described I have heard that over 2,000 pounds was taken in the room most of the Catlea's with which the public is familiar Mossier, Triene, Mendelei and so forth have white varieties but an example absolutely pure is so uncommon that it fetches a long price loveliest of these is Catlea skinnari alba for generations if not for ages the people of Costa Rica have been gathering every morsel they can find and planting it upon the roofs of their mud-built churches Russell and the early collectors had a good time buying these semi-sacred flowers from the priests bribing the parishioners to steal them or when occasions served playing the thief themselves but the game is nearly up seldom now can a piece of Catlea skinnari alba be obtained by honest means and when a collector arrives guards are set upon the churches that still keep their decoration no plant has ever been found in the forest we understand end of chapter 5 section 1 section 8 of about or kids a chat this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Peter Yersley about or kids a chat by Frederick Boil chapter 5 section 2 warm or kids it is just the same case with Loelia Ankeps alba the genus Loelia is distinguished from Catlea by a peculiarity to be remarked only in dissection its pollen masses are 8 as against 4 to my taste however the species are more charming on the whole there is Loelia purpurata casual observers always find it hard to grasp the fact that or kids are weeds in their native homes just like fox gloves and dandelions with us in this instance as I have noted they flatly refuse to believe and certainly upon the face of it their incredulity is reasonable Loelia purpurata falls under the head of hot or kids Loelia Ankeps however is not so exacting many people grow it in the cool house and expose it there to the full blaze of sunshine in its commonest form it is divinely beautiful I have seen a plant in Mr. Eastie's collection with 23 spikes the flowers are all open at once such a spectacle is not to be described in prose but when the enthusiast has rashly said that earth contains no more ethereal loveliness let him behold Loelia Ankeps alba the white variety the dullest man I ever knew who had a common place for all occasions found no word in presence of that marvel even the halfcasts of Mexico who have no soul apparently for things above horse flesh and cock fights and love making reverence this saintly bloom the Indians adore it like their brethren to the south who have tenderly removed every plant of catlaya skinner eye alba for generations unknown to set upon their churches they collect this supreme effort of nature and replant it round their huts so thoroughly as the work being done in either case that no single specimen was ever seen in the forest every one has been bought from the Indians and the supply is exhausted that is to say a good many more are known to exist but very rarely now can the owner be persuaded to part with one the first example reached England nearly half a century ago sent probably a native trader to his correspondent in this country but as was usual at that time the circumstances are doubtful it found its way somehow to Mr. Dawson of Meadowbank a famous collector and by him it was divided search was made for the treasure in its home but vainly travelers did not look in the Indian gardens no more arrived for many years Mr. Sander once conceived a fine idea he sent one of his collectors to gather Luelia at Alba at the season when it is in bud with an intention of startling the universe by displaying a mass of them in full bloom they were still more uncommon then than now when a dozen flowering plants is still the show of which kings may be proud Mr. Bartholomeus punctually fulfilled his instructions collected some 40 plants with their spikes well developed attached them to strips of wood which he nailed across shallow Francisco thence they traveled by fast train to New York and proceeded without a moment's delay to Liverpool on board the Umbria it was one of her first trips all went well confidently did Mr. Sander anticipate the sensation when a score of those glorious plants were set out in full bloom upon the tables but on opening the boxes he found every spike withered the experiment is so tempting that it has been agreed once more with a like result the buds of Loelia ankeps will not stand sea air Catasatums do not rank as a genus among our beauties in fact saving Catasatum piliatum commonly called Seabungorothi and Seabavatum I think of none at this moment which are worthy of attraction on that ground Seafimbriatum indeed would be lovely if it could be persuaded to show itself I have seen one plant which condescended to open its spotted blooms but only one no orchids however give more material for study on this account Catasatum was a favourite with Mr. Darwin it is approved also by unlearned persons who find relief from the monotony of admiration as they stroll round in observing its acrobatic performances the column bears two horns if these be touched the pollen masses fly as if discharged from a catapult Catasatum piliatum however is very handsome four inches across ivory white with a round well in the centre of its broad lip which makes a theme for endless speculation the daring eccentricities of colour in this class of plant have no stronger example than Catasatum callosum a novelty from Caracas with inky brown sepals and petals brightest orange column lobellum of 30 degree green tipped with orange to match shomburg kias are not often seen having a boundless choice of fine things which grow and flower without reluctance the practical gardener gets irritated in these days when he finds a plant beyond his skill it is a pity for the shomburg kias are glorious things in a special shomburg kia tabinikainis no description has done its justice and few are privileged to speak as eyewitnesses the clustering flowers hang down sepals and petals of dusky mauve most gracefully frilled and twisted encircling a great hollow lobellum which ends in a golden drop that part of the cavity which is visible between the handsome incurved wings has bold stripes of dark crimson the species is interesting too it comes from Honduras where the children use its great hollow pseudo bulbs as trumpets the name at their base is a hole, a touch hole as we may say the utility of which defies our botanists had Mr. Belt travelled in those parts he might have discovered the secret as in the similar case of the bull thorn one of the gumifery the great thorns of that bush have just such a hole and Mr. Belt proved by lengthy observations that it is designed to speak roughly for the ingress of an ant peculiar to that acacia whose duty it is to defend the young shoots Fide Belt's naturalist in Nicaragua page 218 Importers are too well aware that Schomburgia tipichinus also is inhabited by an ant of singular ferocity for it survives the voyage and rushes forth to battle when the case is opened we may suppose that it performs a like service dendrobiums are warm of the hot species which are many and the cool which are few I have not to speak here but a remark made at the beginning of this chapter especially applies to dendrobes if they be started early so that the young growths are well advanced by June the 1st if the situation be warm and a part of the house sunny if they be placed in that part without any shade till July and freely syringed with a little extra attention many of them will do well enough that is to say they will make such a show of blossom as is mighty satisfactory in the winter time we must not look for specimens but there should be bloom enough to repay handsomely the very little trouble they give among those that may be treated so are dendrobium wardianum falconary crassinodi pierardii crystallinum and nobile of course probably there are more but these I have tried myself dendrobium wardianum at the present day comes almost exclusively from Burma the neighbourhood of the ruby mines is its favourite habitat but it was first brought to England from Assam in 1858 when botanists regarded it as a form of dendrobium falconary this era was not so strange as it seems for the Assamese the majority has pseudo-bulbs much less sturdy than those we are used to see and they are quite pendulous it was rather a lively business collecting orchids in Burma before the annexation the Roman Catholic missionaries established there made it a source of income and they did not greet an intruding stranger with warmth not genial warmth at least he was forbidden to quit the town of Bamu an edict which compelled him to become a native collector in fact Cooley's himself waiting helplessly within the walls but his reverend rivals having greater freedom and an acquaintance with the language organised a corps of skirmishers to prowl round and intercept the natives returning with their loads doubtless somebody received the value when they made a haul but who is uncertain perhaps and the stranger was disappointed anyhow it may be believed that unedifying scenes arose especially on two or three occasions when an agent had almost reached one of the four gates before he was intercepted for the hapless collector having nothing in the worlds to do haunted those portals all day long flying from one to the other in hope to see somebody coming very droll but Burma is a warm country for jests of the kind thus it happened occasionally that he beheld his own discomforture in the house ensued at the mission house at length Mr. Sander addressed a formal petition to the Austrian Archbishop to whom the missioner is owed allegiance he received a sympathetic answer and some assistance from the ruby mines also comes a dendrobium so excessively rare that I name it only to call the attention of employees in the new company this is dendrobium rhodotorigium the Trevor Lawrence has or had a plant I believe two or three at St. Albans but the lists of other dealers will be searched in vain so Trevor Lawrence also had a scarlet species from Burma but it died even before the christening and no second has yet been found Sumatra furnishes a scarlet's dendrobe de-forced a manny but it again is of the utmost rarity Baron Schroeder boasts three specimens which have not yet flowered however from Burma comes the dendrobium brimerianum of which the story is brief but very thrilling if we ponder it a moment for the missionaries sent this plant to Europe without a description they had not seen the bloom doubtless and it sold cheap enough we may fancy Mr. Brimer's emotion therefore when the striking flower opened its form is unique though some other varieties display a long fringe as that extraordinary object Nanodis medusae and also Brasovola digbiana which is exquisitely lovely sometimes in the case of dendrobium brimerianum the bright yellow lip is split all round for two-thirds of its expanse into twisted filaments we may well ask what on earth is nature's purpose in this eccentricity but it is a question that arises every hour to the most thoughtless being who grows at all kids everybody knows dendrobium nobole so well that it is not to be discussed in prose something might be done in poetry perhaps by young gentlemen who sing of butter cups and daisies but the rhyme would be difficult dendrobium nobole nobilius however is by no means so common would it were this glorified form turned up among an importation made by Monsieur Rollison they propagated it and sold four small pieces which are still in cultivation but the troubles of that renowned firm to which we owe so great a debt had already begun the mother-plant was neglected it had fallen into such a desperate condition when Monsieur Rollison's plants were sold under a decree in bankruptcy that the great dealers refused to bid for what should have been a little goldmine a casual market gardener hazarded thirty shillings brought it round so far that he could establish a number of young plants and sold the parent for forty pounds at last there are however several fine varieties of dendrobium nobili more valuable than nobilius dendrobium nobili san derianum resembles that form but it is smaller and darker albinos have been found parent Schroeder has a beautiful example one appeared at Stevens rooms announced as the single instance in cultivation which is not quite the fact near enough for the auction room perhaps it also was imported originally by Mr Sander with dendrobium nobili san derianum biddings reached forty three pounds but the owner would not deal at the price albinos are rare among the dendrobes dendrobium nobili cuxoni was the fonts at origo of an unpleasant misunderstanding it's turned up in the collection of Mr Lang distinguished by a reversal of the ordinary scheme of colour there is actually no end to the delightful vagaries of these plants if people only knew what interest and pleasing excitement attends the inflorescence of an imported orchid one that is which has not bloomed before in Europe they would crowd the auction rooms in which every strange face is marked now there are books enough to inform them certainly but who reads an orchid book even the enthusiast only consults it dendrobium nobili cuxoni then has white tips to petal and sepal the crimson spot keeps its place and the inside of the flower is deep red an inversion of the usual colouring Mr Lang could scarcely fail to observe this peculiarity but he seems to have thought little of it Mr Cuxon paying him a visit was struck however as well he might be and expressed a wish to have the plant so the two distinguished amateurs made an exchange Mr Cuxon sent a flower at once to Professor Reichenbach who, delighted and enthusiastic registered it upon the spot under the name of the gentleman from whom he received it Mr Lang protested warmly demanding that his discovery should be called after his residence Heathfieldsianum but Professor Reichenbach dryly refused to consider personal questions and really seeing how short his life and how long dendrobium nobili Heathfield etc true philanthropists will hold him justified we may expect wondrous dendrobes from New Guinea some fine species have already arrived and others have been sent in the dried inflorescence of d-faleonopsis shrederii I have spoken elsewhere there is d-goldii a variety of d-superbians much larger there is dendrobius albertsii snow-white d-broomfieldianum curiously like Loelia Ankep's alba in its flower which is to say that it must be the loveliest of all dendrobes but this species has a further charm almost incredible the lip in some varieties is washed with lavender blue in some with crimson another is nearly related to dendrobium bigibom it's hue is a glorious rosy purple deepening on the lip the side lobes of which curl over and meet forming a cylindrical tube while the middle lobe prolonged stands out at right angles feigned with very dark purple this has just been named destetarianum it has upon the disc an elevated hairy crest like d-bigibom but instead of being white as always more or less in that instance the crest of the new species is dark purple I have been particular in describing this noble flower because very very few have beheld it those who live will see marvels when the Dutch and German portions of New Guinea are explored recently I have been privileged to see another the most impressive to my taste of all the lovely genus it is called dendrobium atroviolatium the stately flowers hanging down their heads reflexed like a turban lily ten or a dozen on a spike the colour is ivory white with a faintest tinge of green and green spots are dotted all over the lobes of the lip curl in making half the circumference of a funnel the outside of which is dark violet blue with that fine colour the lip itself is boldly striped they tell me that the public is not expected to catch on it hangs its head too low and the contrast of hues is too startling if that be so we multiply schools of art and county council lectures perambulate the realm in vain the artistic sense is denied us Madagascar also will furnish some astonishing novelties it has already begun in fact with a vengeance imagine a scarlet chymbidium that such a wonder existed has been known for some years and three collectors have gone in search of it two died and the third has been terribly ill since his return to Europe but he won the treasure which we shall behold in good time those parts of Madagascar which especially interest botanists must be death traps indeed Monsieur Leon Umblo tells how he died at Tamatave with his brother and six compatriots exploring the country with various scientific aims within 12 months he was the only survivor one of these unfortunate travelling on behalf of Mr Cutler the celebrated naturalist of Bloomsbury street to find butterflies and birds shot at a native idol as the report goes the priest soaked him with paraffin and burnt him on a table perhaps their alter Monsieur Umblo himself has had awful experiences he was attached to the geographical survey directed by the French government and ten years ago he found Phaegis Humblotii and Phaegis Tuberculosis in the deadliest swamps of the interior a few of the bulbs gathered lived through the passage home and caused much excitement when offered for sale at Stephen's auction rooms Monsieur Umblo risked his life again and secured a great quantity for Mr Sander but at a dreadful cost he spent 12 months in the hospital at Mayotte after arrival at Marseille with his plants the doctors gave him no hope of recovery Phaegis Humblotii is a marvel of beauty rose pink with a great crimson lobellum exquisitely frilled and a bright green column everybody who knows his Darwin is aware that Madagascar is the chosen home of the Anglicans all indeed are natives of Africa so far as I know accepting the delightful Anglican falcatum which comes strangely enough from Japan one cannot but suspect under the circumstances that this species was brought from Africa ages ago when the Japanese were enterprising seamen and has been acclimatised by those skillful horticulturists it is certainly odd that the only cool irides the only one found I believe outside of India and the eastern tropics also belongs to Japan and a cool dendrobe the Arqueatum is found in the Transfal and I have reason to hope that another or more will turn up when South Africa is thoroughly searched a pink Angriacum very rarely seen dwells somewhere on the west coast the only species so far as I know which is not white it bears the name of Monsieur du Chailu who found it I took that famous traveller to St Albans in the hope of quickening his recollection and poured him afterwards with categorical inquiries but all was vain Monsieur du Chailu can only recall that once on a time when just starting for Europe it occurred to him to run into the bush and strip the trees indiscriminately Mr. Sander was prepared to send a man expressly for this Angriacum the exquisite Angriacum Sandarianum is a native of the Komoro Islands no flower could be prettier than this nor more deliciously scented when scented it is it grows in a climate which travellers describe as paradise and in truth it becomes such a scene those who behold young plants with graceful garlands of snowy bloom 12 to 20 inches long are prone to fall into raptures but imagine it as a long established specimen appears just now at St Albans with racemes drooping two and a half feet from each new growth clothed on either side with flowers like a double train of white long-tailed butterflies hovering Angriacum Scotianum comes from Zanzibar discovered I believe by Sir John Kirk a cordatum from Sierra Leone this latter species is the nearest rival of Angriacum Sesquipedale showing tails 10 inches long next in order for this characteristic detail rank a Leonis and Cotschiae the latter rarely grown with seven-inch tails Scotianum and Elysii that is to say they ought to show such dimensions respectively whether they fulfil their promise depends upon the grower with the exceptions named this family belongs to Madagascar it has a charming distinction shared by no other genus which I recall save in less degree catlaya attractive but I must concentrate myself on the most striking that which fascinated Darwin in the first place it should be pointed out that savants call this plant Irenthus Sesquipedales not Angriacum a fact useful to know but unimportant to ordinary mortals it was discovered by the Reverend Mr. Ellis and sent home alive nearly 30 years ago but civilized mankind has not yet done wondering at it the stately growth the magnificent green white flowers command admiration at a glance but the tail or spur offers a problem of which the thoughtful never tire it is commonly 10 inches long sometimes 14 inches and at home I have been told even longer about the thickness of a goose quill hollow of course the last inch and a half filled with nectar studying this appendage the light of the principles he had laid down Darwin ventured on a prophecy which roused special mirth among the unbelievers not only the abnormal length of the nectuary had to be considered there was besides the fact that all its honey lay at the base a foot or more from the orifice accepting it as a postulate that every detail of the apparatus must be equally essential for the purpose it had to serve he made a series of experiments which demonstrated that some insect of Madagascar doubtless a moth must be equipped with a proboscis long enough to reach the nectar and at the same time thick enough at the base to withdraw the polinia thus fertilizing the bloom for if the nectar had lain so close to the orifice that moths with the proboscis of reasonable length and thickness could get at it they would drain the cup without touching the polinia Darwin never proved his special genius more admirably than in this case he created an insect beyond belief as one may say by the force of logic and such absolute confidence had he in his own syllogism that he declared if such great moths were to become extinct in Madagascar assuredly this angriquem would become extinct I am not aware that Darwin's fine argument has yet been clinched by the discovery of that insect Cavill has ceased long before his death a sphinx moth arrived from South Brazil which shows a proboscis between 10 and 11 inches long very nearly equal therefore to the task of probing the nectuary of angriquem sesquipidaele and we know enough of orchids at this time to be absolutely certain that the Madagascar species must exist End of section 8 the second section of chapter 5 section 9 of About Orchids a Chat this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Peter Yersley About Orchids a Chat by Frederick Boyle Chapter 6 Hot Orchids Part 1 In former chapters I have done my best to show that orchid culture is no mystery the laws which govern it are strict and simple easy to define in books easily understood and subject to few exceptions it is not with adontoglossums and tendrobies as with roses an intelligent man or woman needs no longer apprenticeship to master their treatment Stove orchids are not so readily dealt with but then persons who own a stove usually keep a gardener coming from the hot lowlands of either hemisphere much greater variety than those of the temperate and subtropic zones there are more genera though not so many species and more exceptions to every rule these therefore are not to be recommended to all householders not everyone indeed is anxious to grow plants which need a minimum night heat of 60 degrees in winter 70 degrees in summer and cannot dispense with fire the whole year round the artist of all orchids probably is Peristeria Illata the famous spiritosanto flower of the Holy Ghost the dullest soul who observes that white dove rising with wings half spread as in the very act of taking flight can understand the frenzy of the Spaniards when they came upon it rumours of Peruvian magnificent had just reached them at Panama on the same day perhaps when this miraculous sign from heaven encouraged them to advance the empire of the Incas did not fall a prey to that particular band of ruffians nevertheless Peristeria Illata is so well known that I would not dwell upon it but an odd little tale rises to my mind the great collector Ruizl was travelling homeward in 1868 by Panama the railway fair to Cologne was $60 at that time and he grudged the money setting his wits to work Ruizl discovered that the company issued tickets from station to station at a very low price for the convenience of its employees taking advantage of this system he crossed the Isthmus for $5 such an advantage it is in travelling to be an old campaigner at one of the intermediate stations he had to wait for his train and rushed into the jungle of course Peristeria abounded in that steaming swamp but the collector was on holiday to his amazement however he found side by side with it a mass devalier that's genus most impatient of sunshine among all orchids flourishing here in the hottest blaze snatching up half a dozen of the tender plants with a practised hand to England on the day they were put up to auction news of Livingston's death arrived and in a flash of inspiration Ruizl christened his novelty mass devalier Livingstoniana few indeed even among authorities know where that rarest of mass devaliers has its home none have reached Europe since a pretty flower it is white, rosy tipped with yellow tails a collection of gulabras on the Panama Railway of genera however doubtless the vandas are hottest and among these Vanda Sanderiana stands first it was found in Mindanao the most southerly of the Philippines by Mr Robelan when he went thither in search of the redphalionopsis as will be told presently Vanda Sanderiana is a plant to be described as majestic rather than lovely if we may distinguish among these glorious things its blooms are five inches across pale lilac in their ground color suffused with brownish yellow and covered with a network of crimson brown twelve or more of such striking flowers to a spike and four or five spikes upon a plant make a wonder indeed but to view matters prosaically Vanda Sanderiana is bad business it is not common and it grows on the very top of the highest trees which must be felled to secure the treasure and of those gathered but a small proportion survive in the first place the agent must employ natives who are paid so much per plant no matter what the size a bad system but they will allow no change it is evidently their interest to provide any specimen that will bear cutting up if the fragments bleed to death they have got their money meantime then the manila steamers call at Mindenau only once a month three months are needed to get together plants enough to yield a fair profit at the end of that time a large proportion of those first gathered will certainly be doomed vandas have no pseudo-bulbs to sustain their strength from manila to Singapore every fortnight if the collector be fortunate he may light upon a captain willing to receive his packages in that case he builds structures of bamboo on deck and spends the next fortnight in watering, shading and ventilating his precious trouvée alternately but captains willing to receive such freight must be waited for too often at Singapore it is necessary to make the final overhauling of the plants to their woeful diminution this done, troubles recommence, seldom will the captain of a male steamer accept that miscellaneous cargo happily the time of year is or ought to be that season when tea-ships arrive at Singapore the collector may reasonably hope to secure a passage in one of these which will carry him to England in 35 days or so this state of things be pondered even without allowance for accident it will not seem surprising that Vanda Sanderiana is a costly species the largest piece yet secured was bought by Sir Trevor Lawrence at auction for 90 guineas it had 8 stems the tallest 4 feet high no consignment has yet returned a profit however the favoured home of Vanda's is Java they are noble plants even when at rest if perfect that is clothed in their glossy dark green leaves from base to crown if there be any age or any height at which the lower leaves fall of necessity I have not been able to identify it in Mr Sander's collection for instance there is a giant plant of Vanda Suavis 11 growths a small thicket established in 1847 the tallest stem measures 15 feet and every one of its leaves remain they fall off easily under bad treatment but the mischief is repairable at a certain sacrifice the stem may be cut through and the crown replanted with leaves perfect but it will be so much shorter of course the finest specimen I ever heard of is the Vanda Loei at Ferrier seat of Baron Alphonse the Rothschild near Paris it fills the upper part of a large greenhouse and year by year its 12 stems produce an indefinite number of spikes 8 to 10 feet long covered with thousands of yellow and brown blooms footnote Vanda Loei is properly called Renanthera Loei end footnote Vanda's inhabit all the years ago some are found even in India the superb Vanda Terres comes from Silhet from Burma also this might be called the floral cognizance of the house of Rothschild at Frankfurt, Vienna Ferrier and Gunnersbury little meadows of it are grown that is the plants flourish at their own sweet will uncumbered with pots in houses devoted to them rising from a carpet and maiden hair each crowned with its drooping garland of rose and crimson and cinnamon brown they make a glorious show indeed a pretty little coincidence was remarked when the queen paid a visit to Wadizden the other day Vanda Terres first bloomed in Europe at Sion House and a small spray was sent to the young princess unmarried then and uncrowned the incident recurred to memory Rothschild chose this same flower for the bouquet presented to Her Majesty he adorned the luncheon table therewith besides this story bears a moral the plant of which one spray was a royal gift less than sixty years ago has become so far common that it may be used in masses to decorate a room thousands of unconsidered subjects of Her Majesty enjoy the pleasure which one great Duke was popularised before her reign began there is matter for an essay here I hasten back to my theme Vanda Terres is not such a common object that description would be superfluous it belongs to the small class of climbing orchids delighting to sun itself upon the rafters of the hottest stove if this habit be duly regarded it is not difficult to flower by any means to not keep pace with their age still pronounce it a hopeless rebel Sir Hugh Lowe tells me that he clothed all the trees round government house at Pahang with Vanda Terres planting its near relative Vanda Hookerai more exquisite still if that were possible in a swampy hollow his servants might gather a basket of these flowers daily in the season so the memory of the first president for Pahang will be kept green what rarely seen is Vanda Limbata from the island of Timor dusky yellow the tip purple outlined with white formed like a shovel I may cite a personal reminiscence here in the hope that some reader may be able to supply what he is wanting in years so far back that they seem to belong to a previous existence I travelled in Borneo and paid a visit to the antimony gardens of Bidi the manager Mr. Bentley showed me a grand tapong tree at his door from which he had lately gathered a blue orchid we were desperately vague about names in the jungle at that day or in England for that matter in a note published on my return I said as Mr. Bentley described it the blossoms hung in an azure garland from the bow more gracefully than art could design this specimen is I believe the only one at present known and both melees and diaks are quite ignorant of such a flower what was this there is no question of the facts Mr. Bentley sent the plant a large mass to the chairman of the company and it reached home in fair condition I saw the warm letter in closing check for a hundred pounds in which Mr. Templar acknowledged receipt but further record I have not been able to discover one inclines to assume that a blue orchid which puts forth a garland of bloom must be a vander the description might be applied to vander Carulia but that species is a native of the Cassia Hills more appropriately as I recall Mr. Bentley's words to vander Carulescens which however is Burmese furthermore neither of these would be looked for on the branch of a great tree possibly someone who reads this may know what became of Mr. Templar's specimen both the species of renanthera need great heat among facts not generally known to orchid growers but decidedly interesting for them is the commercial habitat as one may say of renantheria coxinia the books state correctly that it is a native of Cochin China orchids coming from such a distance must needs be wizard on arrival accordingly the most experienced horticulturist who is not up to a little secret feels assured that all is well when he beholds at the auction room or at one of the small dealers a plant full of sap with glossy leaves and unshriveled roots it must have been in cultivation for a year at the very least and he buys with confidence too often however a disastrous change gets in from the very moment his purchase reaches home instead of growing it falls back and back until in a very few weeks it has all the appearance of a newly imported piece the explanation is curious at some time not so distant a quantity of renanthera coxinia must have found its way to the neighbourhood of Rio there it flourishes as a weed with a vigor quite unparalleled in its native soil unscrupulous persons take advantage of this extraordinary accident from a country so near and so readily accessible they can get plants home pot them up and sell them before the withering process sets in may this revelation confound such navish tricks the moral is old buy your orchids from one of the great dealers if you do not care to establish them yourself renanthera coxinia is another of the climbing species and it demands even more urgently than van der terres to reach the top of the house where sunshine is fiercest before blooming under the best conditions indeed it is slow to produce its noble wreaths of flower deep red crimson and orange upon the other hand the plant itself is ornamental and it grows very fast the Duke of Devonshire has some at Chatsworth which never fail to make a gorgeous show in their season but they stand 20 feet high twisted round birch trees and they have occupied their present quarters for half a century or near it there is but one more species in the genus so far as the unlearned know but this generally recognized as van der loei as has been already mentioned ranks among the grand curiosities of botanic science like some of the catacetams and kick noches there are two distinct types of flower on each spike but the instance of renanthera loei is even more perplexing in those other cases the differing forms represent male and female sex but the microscope has not yet discovered any sort of reason for the like eccentricity of this renanthera its proper inflorescence as one may put it is greenish-yellow the first two flowers to open however those at the base present a strong contrast in all respects smaller of different shape tawny yellow in colour dotted with crimson it would be a pleasing task for ingenious youth with a bent toward science to seek the utility of this arrangement orchids are spreading fast over the world in these days and we may expect to hear of other instances where a species has taken root in alien climes like renanthera coxinia in Brazil I cannot cite a parallel as present but Mr. Sander informs me that there is a growing demand for these plants in realms which have their own native orchids we have an example in the letter which has been already quoted among customers who write to him direct are magnates of China and Siam an Indian and a Javanese raja Orders are received not unimportant nor infrequent from merchants at Calcutta Singapore, Hong Kong Rio de Janeiro and smaller places of course it is vastly droll to hear that some of these gentlemen import species at a great expense which an intelligent coulee could gather for them in any quantity within a few furlongs of their go down but for the most part they demand foreigners the plants thus distributed will be grown in the open air naturally they will seed at least we may hope so even Angraicum sesquipidaele of which I wrote in the preceding chapter would find a moth able to impregnate it in South Brazil such species as recognise the conditions necessary for their existence will establish themselves it is fairly safe to credit that in some future time not distant cat layers may flourish in the jungles of India dendrobiums on the Amazons Phalionopsis in the coastlands of Central America those who wish well to their kind would like to hasten that day Mr Burbage suggested at the Orchid conference that gentlemen who have plantations in a country suitable should establish a farm or rather a market garden and grow the precious things for exportation it is an excellent idea and when tea, coffee, sugarcane all regular crops of the east and west indies are so depreciated by competition one would think that some planters might adopt it perhaps some have it is too early yet for results upon enquiry I hear of a case but it is not encouraging one of Mr Sander's collectors marrying when on service in the United States of Columbia resolved to follow Mr Burbage's advice he set up his farm and began hybridizing freely no man living is better qualified as a collector for the hero of this little tale is Mr Kerbach a name familiar among those who take interest in such matters but I am not aware that he had any experience in growing orchids to start with hybridizing seems very ambitious too much of a short cut to fortune however in less than 18 months Mr Kerbach found it he did not answer for reasons unexplained and he begged to be reinstated in Mr Sander's service it is clear indeed that the orchid farmer of the future in whose success I firmly believe will be wise to begin modestly cultivating the species he finds in his neighborhood it is not in our greenhouses alone that these plants sometimes show likes and dislikes beyond explanation any gentleman in Costa Rica a wealthy land and comparatively civilized have tried to cultivate the glorious Catalea d'Aoyana for business purposes also the attempt has been made but never with success in those tropical lands a variation of climate or circumstances small perhaps but such as plants that subsist mostly upon air can recognize will be found in a very narrow circuit that Tricopilias have their home at Bogota as a matter of fact however they will not live in the immediate vicinity of that town though the woods 15 miles away are stocked with them the orchid farmer will have to begin cautiously propagating what he finds at hand and he must not be hasty in sending his crop to market it is a general rule of experience that plants brought from the forest and established before shipment do less well than those shipped direct in good condition though the public naturally is slow to admit a conclusion opposed by a priori reasoning the cause may be that they exhaust their strength in that first effort and suffer more severely on the voyage I hear of one gentleman however who appears to be cultivating orchids with success this is Mr. Rand dwelling on the Rio Negro in Brazil where he has established a plantation of Havia Braziliansis a new Cauchu of the highest quality indigenous to those parts some years ago Mr. Rand wrote to Mr. Godsef at St. Albans begging plants of Vanda Sandariana and other oriental species which were duly forwarded in return he dispatched some pieces of a new Epidendrum named in his honour Epidendrum Randii a noble flower with petals and petals the lip crimson betwixt two large white wings this and others native to the Rio Negro Mr. Rand is propagating on a large scale in shreds of bamboo especially a white catlaya superba which he himself discovered it is pleasing to add that by latest reports all the oriental species were thriving to perfection on the other side of the Atlantic Vandas indeed should flourish where catlaya superba is at home or anything else that loves the atmosphere of a kitchen on washing day at mid-summer though all the catlayers or very nearly all will do in an intermediate house several prefer the stove of two among them Catlaya dowiana and sea aurea I spoke in the preceding chapter with an enthusiasm that does not bear repetition Catlaya gotata leopoldi grows upon rocks in the little island of Santa Catarina Brazil in company with laulia elegans and el purpurata there the fore dwelt in such numbers only twenty years ago that the supply was thought inexhaustible it has come to an end already and collectors no longer visit the spot cliffs and ravines which men still young can recollect a blaze with colour are as bare now as a stone quarry nature had done much to protect her treasures they flourished mostly in places which the human foot cannot reach laulia elegans and catlaya getata leopoldi inextricably entwined clinging to the face of lofty rocks the blooms of the former are white and mauve of the latter chocolate brown spotted with dark red the lip purple a wondrous sight that must have been in the time of flowering it is lost now probably forever natives went down suspended on a rope and swept the whole circuit of the island year by year a few specimens remain in nooks absolutely inaccessible but those happy mortals who possess a bit of laulia elegans should treasure it for more are very seldom forthcoming laulia elegans statariana is the finest variety perhaps the crimson velvet tip of its labellum is as clearly and sharply defined upon the snow white surface as pencil could draw it looks like painting by the steadiest of hands in angelic colour catlaya getata leopoldi has been found elsewhere it is deliciously scented I observed a plant at St. Albans lately with three spikes each bearing over twenty flowers many strong perfumes there were in the house but that overpowered them all the laulia purpurata of Santa Catarina to which the finest varieties in cultivation belong has shared the same fate its occupied boulders jutting out above the swamps in the full glare of tropic sunshine many gardeners give it too much shade this species grows also on the mainland but of inferior quality in all respects curiously enough it dwells upon trees there even though rocks be at hand while the island variety I believe was never found on timber another hot catlaya of the highest class is catlaya acclandii it belongs to the dwarf section of the genus and inexperienced persons are vastly surprised to see such a little plant bearing two flowers on a spike each larger than itself four inches in diameter petals and sepals chocolate brown barred with yellow lip large of colour varying from rose to purple catlaya acclandii is found at Bahia where it grows side by side with catlaya amethystaglossa also a charming species very tall leafless to the tip of its pseudo bulbs thus the dwarf beneath is seen in all its beauty as they cling together in great masses they must make a flower bed to themselves above the clustered spikes of catlaya amethystaglossa dusky lilac purple spotted with a lip of amethyst upon the ground the rich chocolate and rose of catlaya acclandii catlaya superba as has been said dwells also on the Rio Negro in Brazil it has a wide range for specimens have been sent from the Rio meta in Colombia this species is not loved by gardeners who find it difficult to cultivate and almost impossible to flower probably because they cannot give it sunshine enough I have heard that Baron Ruby a Hungarian enthusiast in our science has no sort of trouble wonders indeed are reported of that admirable collection where all the hot orchids thrive like weeds the Britain may find comfort in assuming that cool species are happier beneath his cloudy skies if he be prudent he will not seek to verify the assumption the assistant curator of Q assures us in his excellent little work orchids that the late Mr. Spires grew catlaya superba well and he details his method I myself have never seen the bloom Mr. Watson describes it as five inches across bright rosy purple suffused with white very fragrant lip with acute side lobes folding over the column making a funnel in short the front lobe spreading kidney shaped crimson purple with a blotch of white and yellow in front in the same districts with catlaya superba grows galliandra divoniana under circumstances rather unusual it clings to the very tip of a slender palm in swamps which the Indians themselves regard with dread as the chosen home of fever and mosquitoes it was discovered by Sir Robert Schomburg who compared the flower to a fox glove referring especially perhaps to the graceful bend of its long pseudo bulbs which is almost lost under cultivation the tube like flowers are purple contrasting exquisitely with a snow white lip striped with lilac in the throat end of section nine