80 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 
cause of the standing of the Missouri Botanical Garden, the 
Federal Horticultural Board granted a special permit, allow- 
ing orchids collected in South America and Panama to enter 
at New Orleans and come direct to St. Louis, where they 
could be inspected, instead of following the usual regulations. 
If such an arrangement had not been made it would have 
been useless to undertake the planned expedition, but with 
the way clear for the delivery of the plants to the Garden, 
Mr. George H. Pring, Horticulturist to the Garden, began 
at once to make preparations for the trip. 
Early collectors of orchids in Colombia, such as Schlim, 
Blunt, Linden, the Klablock brothers, Chesterton, Lehmann, 
and Kalbrayer, had no difficulty because of the abundance 
of accessible plants. During these easy-collecting days the 
commercial cattleya was found growing upon houses and 
in forests close at hand. In Yacopi, in the Departamento Cun- 
dinamarea, the villagers even presented a collector with forty 
eases of plants. A present-day collector, however, must rely 
upon the natives exclusively, making his headquarters at the 
nearest village and waiting with all the patience at his com- 
mand for the return of the natives with the coveted orchids. 
During this time he has abundant opportunity to become 
familiar with the native food which consists of bananas, pre- 
pared in various fashions, the yuca (Manihot roots), sun- 
dried fish, and last but not least, the native meat, taking the 
usual chances with ptomaine poisoning and dysentery. 
Boxes must also be prepared for the possible shipments. 
This usually involves cutting trees, from which boards are 
made by crude native methods. These packing crates are of 
standard size, 46 x 46x 75 em., and for ventilation spaces are 
left between the boards and occasionally bamboo strips are 
used on the ends. When the plants arrive they are cleaned, 
cutting away any surplus back pseudo-bulbs or waste ma- 
terial, then dried thoroughly before packing. The plants 
are put into the cases as tightly as possible, no packing ma- 
terial being used, each box holding ten arrobas, or 250 pounds. 
This weight diminishes during transportation to this country 
to about six arrobas or 150 pounds. 
The best time for collecting Cattleya Trianae, according to 
Cyril Allen of Bogota, is during the dry season (November 
to March). The flowering season, ‘‘Varanillo”’ (‘‘little dry 
season’’), which is from the end of July to September, is 
