THE PERILS OF ORCHID HUNTING. 9I 



species become sprinkled with yellow, due to numberless male 

 flowers, producing pollen despite the snow and frost. 



The wood of both kinds is yellowish in color, light in weight, 

 non-resinous, and highly esteemed for fuel and posts. 



The tree shown in the picture is a landmark for many miles 

 around, because of its beauty and extraordinary size. It is a little 

 over five feet in diameter and between sixty and seventy feet in 

 height. The ground on which it stands recently fell into the hands 

 of a mining company. A ranchman and ex-cowboy living near, 

 rode by the tree one day. The manager for the company had 

 some men on the spot, preparing to cut it down. 



" What are you doin' ?" said the ex-cowboy. 



" Why, I'm going to cut this tree down : it's no use here ; it's in 

 the way," replied the manager. 



"No, you don't; not while I'm a-crawlin'," broke in the ex- 

 cowboy, his hand instinctively going to his belt. " This tree stood 

 a guide-post to the ranchman and the cowboy of this country 

 before you and your mining company ever thot o' bein' born. And 

 it'll keep on a standin', too !" 



With this he rode to town, and the manager prudently desisted. 

 The ex-cowboy spread the manager's intention. For days there- 

 after talk of six-shooters was rife amongst the neighbors. The 

 manager abandoned his plan, and the noble tree lives on for the 

 guidance and delight of cowboy children yet unborn. 



THE PERILS OF ORCHID HUNTING. 



The strange perils and risks that attend the collecting of wild 

 orchids have been graphically described by Mr. William Fitz- 

 gerald in the Sunday magazine of the New York Tribune of Feb- 

 ruary 25. The writer tells how, in some of the wildest and most 

 remote regions of the world, in Mexico, Venezuela, Guatemala, 

 Honduras, Nicaragua, Brazil, Burma, in the interior of Assam and 

 the Himalayas generally, in Borneo, New Guinea, and on the 

 west coast of Africa, a certain orchid dealer in London maintains 

 a staff of collectors who often risk their lives in the hunt for these 

 gorgeous epiphytes of the tropical forest. 



