iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiw 



IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII>IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!IIIIIIIII||H 



GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



(OF AMERICA) 

 Devoted to the Science of Floriculture and Horticulture 



■ Vol. XXV 



MARCH, 1921 



llilllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllliillllllllllllllllllllllil 



No. 3 I 



lillllliiiliiiiiliiiiiiiiillliliiil 



LIBItAICY 



Things and Thoughts of the Garden nbwv«rk 



MONTAGUE, FREE 



BOTANICAL 

 •JAUUaH 



WHEN writing last month of some of the introduc- 

 tions of \'eitch & Sons a train of thought was 

 started which led to some reflections on the ro- 

 mance of plant collecting and to the reperusal, after a 

 lapse of twenty years or so, of a boys' book of adventure 

 called "The Orchid .Seekers: A Story of Adventure in 

 Borneo," by .\shmore Russan and Frederick Boyle. 



The reading of this book, when a garden boy, did much 

 to make tolerable those burdensome chores which are in- 

 separable from gardening, and which are so often, inad- 

 ^•isedly perhaps, put upon the shoulders of a beginner. 

 W hen chasing mealy bugs and scales with sponge and 

 brush in the steaming stove, the remembrance of the ad- 

 ventures of daring Ralph Rider and his companions when 

 orchid seeking in rjorneo, tended to counteract the 

 soporific influence of the employment ; and musing upon 

 the romance and glamor of plant collecting, that the au- 

 thors so admirably succeeded in depicting, was instru- 

 mental m lessening the ennui consequent upon the seem- 

 ingly interminable crocking of pots. 



It is a story of a search for a "blue orchid" in Borneo. 

 The f)€rsonality of the leader of the party, Carl Hertz, 

 was evidently moulded on that of Benedict Roezl, one of 

 the greatest of plant collectors, whose name is commem- 

 orated in many of our glass house favorites ; for Hertz, 

 like Roezl, had lost one of his hands and used an iron 

 hook as a substitute. Doubtless, as a concession to the 

 ■demands of the reading public, who require much of 

 their book heroes, Hertz was somewhat of a superman, 

 for we learn he "was acquainted with every tree and 

 herb in the universe, or nearly so," which seems to us 

 moderns to be an almost impossible accomplishment. The 

 other principal members of the party were two sons of 

 Mr. Rider, an orchid importer, located in England, and 

 Bounce, a sailor, who provides the comic relief. 



When books of this nature deal with plant life one ex- 

 pects to find glaring mistakes and arrant misinformation 

 likely to raise the scornful ire of botanist or gardener, but 

 "The Orchid Seekers" is an exception. The junior au- 

 thor, Frederick F)Oyle, is a traveller, amateur orchid 

 grower, and writer on horticultural subjects, and has a 

 vast fund of reliable plant lore. In the "Orchid Seekers" 

 the characters speak glibly and correctly of such tongue 

 twisters, from the layman's point of view, as Phakcnopsis, 

 GrammatophylUim. Dcndrobinm and Ccrlogyiic. 



So well is the pill of botanical knowledge coated with 

 the jam of adventure that the information given may be 

 absorbed unconsciouslv — sometimes a desideratum when 



dealing with the problems of adidescent education. Thus 

 there are discussions on the fertilization of orchids, con- 

 ducted with interruptions occasioned by thrilling game 

 hunting interludes, and we learn of the ingenious mech- 

 anism which insures the cross pollination of the Bucket 

 Orchid, the curious tumbling lips and awful odor of some 

 of the Bulbophyllums, the spring gun contrivance which 

 ejects the pollinia of Catasctiim, and of the adventures of 

 insects in the slippers of Cypripediums. The story is told 

 of Angraciim sesquipcda'lc, that plant curiosity with a 

 nectar tube one foot or so in length, which impelled Dar- 

 win to make his famous pronouncement that there must 

 be a moth with a proboscis long enough to reach to the 

 bottom of the tube — a statement that was afterwards 

 proved to be correct by the discovery of such a moth. 



The question "what is an orchid," put to the leader of 

 the party by one of its youthful members, is one that 

 might puzzle many of us to answer oft'hand, without re- 

 course to a botany. Hertz, however, is quite equal to the 

 occasion, and holds forth somewhat as follows : "Orchids 

 are petaloid Monocotyledons niit irregular perianth und 

 inferior ovary, gynandrous. . . . Orchids are a fam- 

 ily of monocotylcdonous phanerograms mit albuminous 

 seeds und an undivided embryo." One suspects that Hertz 

 was showing oft. and in spite of the scientific terminology' 

 of the preceding, we prefer his final ofifering as a more 

 simple and comprehensive definition of an orchid. " .\n 

 orchid ish a flower dot consists of t'ree sepals und t'ree 

 petals, mit de organs of reproduction — separate in oder 

 plants — fused togedder." 



-\11 this sound horticultural and botanical knowledge is 

 interspersed with accounts of hairbreadth escapes from 

 varied dangers, fights with Sulu pirates, adventures with 

 poisonous snakes, encounters with Chinese secret socie- 

 ties, and with Pakatans, adepts in the u.se of blowpipes and 

 deadly poisoned arrows. This is the style of writing dear 

 to the heart of the adolescent male, and 1 can think of no 

 better literary fare to place in the hands of a budding 

 gardener. Such a book as this is worthy of the attention 

 of those who are anxious to interest young men in hor- 

 ticulture as a profession. However, it may necessitate 

 some searching to olitain a copy, as it is quite a number 

 of years since it was first published, and it may be scarce. 

 Of course, it is not at all necessary to delve into the 

 realms of fiction to find thrills in connection with plant 

 collecting. (Actually the incidents described in "The 

 Orchid Seekers"' are founded on facts.) .\ book by 

 Frederick liovle. "The Woodlands Orchids," is a descrip- 



495 



