EDITORIAL 



^ O G ^ 



On many occasions we have been led to comment upon 

 the propensity of the average newspaper reporter to build an 

 impressive story about plants upon an exceedingly tenuous 

 basis of fact, but our astonishment at such feats of the pen is 

 as nothing to our admiration of the reporter's ability in get- 

 ting some of these stories past the editor who is usually sup- 

 posed to be a man of some brains and ordinary common 

 sense. Time and again in the lay press we come upon blood- 

 curdling stories of plants that deal out death to all who ap- 

 proach — Upas trees, man-eating plants, the vulture lily of the 

 East Indies and many others that fail to impress the botanist 

 but which appeal to the credulity of the general reader and by. 

 catering to this belief in the marvellous spoil his appreciation 

 for the wonderful things about plants that are true. The 

 latest contribution to the pseudo-science of botany is entitled 

 the "Death Orchid" and runs as follows : "Three years ago, 

 an orchid hunter, Grayson set out to find 'El Lugor de los 

 Flores Venenosos,' that is 'The Place of the Poisonous 

 Flowers,' which was said to be located in the dense and path- 

 less wilderness occupying the vast stretches between the head 

 waters of the Orinoco and the Andes. One morning there 

 was a perceptible smell of flowers in the air. When the or- 

 chid hunter and iiis Indians camped that night the jungle 

 smell had been entirely lost in the cloying scent. Many of 

 the band refused to go further. As Grayson and the others 

 proceeded the rankly sweet and oppresive odor became 

 stronger, attacking the senses like a narcotic. The orchid 

 hunter felt as if he were being attacked by the insidious 

 power of opium, but retained enough consciousness to become 

 aware that, gleaming through the trees ahead he saw flowers 

 of huge size and vivid colors; many hued clusters of them 

 hanging in trails. It was the death orchid! When he re- 



90 



