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GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



tion of this famous amateur collection, interspersed with 

 stories of orchid collecting, in which incidents are de- 

 scribed as strange, wild and exciting as any conceived in 

 the brain of an imaginative writer. The story of Bulbo- 

 phxUmn barbigcrum, for example, tells of a young clerk in 

 a factory at Whydah, on the Gold Coast, who made a 

 practice of collecting this orchid in his spare time with a 

 view to making money on the side. In so doing he in- 

 curred the wrath of the fetish priesthood, and things be- 

 gan to happen. The unfortunate youth was thrust into 

 the Snake Temple. "There are men who would have lost 

 their wits in terror at that sight. The snakes were there, 

 hundreds of them, perched upon the thickness of the w^all, 

 the ridge of their bodies gleaming in the red light of sun- 

 set, their long necks hanging down, waving and twining. 

 Every head was turned towards him, the glass bright 

 eyes fixed on his, and the tongues slithering with eager- 

 ness. Nightmare was never so horrible." He managed 

 to burst through the doorway and through the guard. The 

 influence of the Europeans of Whydah was sufficient to 

 mitigate his punishment to that of "the man who kills a 

 snake bv evil chance — no worse." This was bad enough, 

 in all conscience, for he was put into a hole in the ground 

 covered with reeds, which were aftefwards set on fire. 

 His chance for life was then to get up, run the gauntlet of 

 natives who would try to cut and hack him until he 

 reached water, when he w'ould be free. It is satisfactory 

 to know that he escaped with but little hurt. 



That plant collecting is not without its humorous side 

 is demonstrated in the story of Roezl's acc|;iisition of Catt- 

 leya Skinncri alba. It was the custom in many parts of 

 South America for the natives to plant on the roof of the 

 local church any rare orchids that they chanced to find. 

 Great value w^as placed on these orchids, and only with 

 great difficulty could they be induced to part with them. 

 Roezl found the white form of Cattlcya Skinneri on the 

 roof of a church in a village in (Guatemala. The problem 

 was how to get it. It so liappened that with the e.xcep- 

 tion of getting drunk, cock-fighting was the one amuse- 

 ment of the population, and the Cura was the leading ex- 

 ponent. The champion cocks of the village had recently 

 been badly beaten by those of a neighboring village, and 

 everyone was despondent and anxious for revenge. This 

 was Roezl's chance. How he came to be possessed of a 

 knowledge of cock-fighting is not explained, but such was 

 the case, and, in return for giving some hints to the Cura 

 as to the proper management of the birds, he was allowed 

 to remove the white Cattlcya and "sold it to Mr. George 

 Hardy, of Manchester, for 280 guineas." Which goes to 

 prove that versatility is a desirable item in the equip- 

 ment of a plant collector. 



* * * * 



The introduction of tropical plants, in the early days 

 especially, was not a particularly healthy occupation. 

 These enterprising and courageous collectors had to face 

 all kinds of dangers from hostile natives, fever-ridden 

 climates, and varied perils of travel by land and water, 

 and many lost their lives in the endeavor to introduce 

 plants that now adorn our gardens. 



Glancing over an account in "Hortus Veitchii" of the 

 collectors employed by Veitch & Sons, we find that many 

 of them came to an untimely end. Richard Pearce, to 

 whom horticulture is indebted for the introduction to cul- 

 tivation of many of the P.egonias which were the parents 

 of tuberous begonias as we know them to-day, succumbed 

 to fever in Panama when on the way to a collecting 

 ground in South America. David Bowman died of dysen- 

 tery in Bogota. Henry Hutton died an early death in 

 Java. Gottlieb Zahn perished by drowning on the way to 

 Costa Rica. J. H. Chesterton, who successfully intro- 



duced Miltonia vcxillaria, died at Puerto Berrio from ill- 

 ness contracted when on a collecting trip. An extract 

 from an obituary notice is illuminating and indicative of 

 one of the qualifications of a collector. "Poor Chester- 

 ton's reckless spirit rendered him very efficient as a plant 

 collector.'' Gustave Wallis, whose work is commemorat- 

 ed by many plants named for him, including Antlinrium 

 JVallisii and lipidcndrinn ll'allisii. died at Cuenca from 

 fever and dysentery. 



Not only were the collectors exposed to great hazards, 

 but the plants too were subjected to many vicissitudes, and 

 often arrived at their destination in a dead or dying condi- 

 tion owing to the lack of swift transportation. Not only 

 that, but many collections were lost outright by such mis- 

 haps as trouble with natives, necessitating the abandon- 

 ment of collections, shipwreck or fire. The latter was il- 

 lustrated in the Florists' Exchange of January 15, 1921, 

 in a paragraph of the obituary notice of the late H. F. 

 C. Sander, founder of the firm that bears his name — one 

 of the most famous in the annals of orchid growing and 

 importing. We learn that the first large consignment of 

 Dcndrobium Phalcrnopsis Schrodcrianum was burnt up in 

 a sailing vessel. Boyle, in "The Woodlands Orchids," 

 gives a full account of the incident. ^Nlicholitz was the 

 collector, and had obtained a large quantity of this de- 

 sirable orchid. During the process of collecting he was 

 compelled to witness many horrors perpetrated by mur- 

 derous natives and jovfully turned his back on the bloody 

 spot. With his shipload of treasures he arrived safely in 

 a port where the orchids were to be transhipped to a 

 steamer that would convey them to England. During 

 the night, however, the sailing vessel caught fire and the 

 orchids were a total loss. The almost monosyllabic cable 

 exchanges between Micholitz and Sanders are related by 

 Boyle as follows : 



"'Ship burnt! What do? — Micholitz.' 

 The reply was emphatic: 'Go back — Sander.' 

 'Too late — rainv season.' 

 'Go back.' " 

 So there was nothing for Micholitz to rlo but return to 

 that blood-stained island in the rainy season and again 

 collect the "Elephant Moth Dendrobe." This time it was 

 found growing in abundance in the graveyard of the 

 tribe — a place where the dead were laid on the ground 

 beneath the sky. Thus it happened that one of the Dend- 

 robes sold at "Protheroe's" [Protheroe & Morris, the 

 well known English firm of horticultural auctioneers], on 

 October 16. 1891, w^as "attached to a human skull." No! 

 Horticulture is not altogether prosaic. 



Shipwreck seems to have been the lot of many of these 

 collections of plants obtained from the wilds at the cost' 

 of. sometimes almost superhuman effort. 



Peter C. M. Veitch had the misfortune to lose the 

 whole of a collection of plants made in the Fiji Islands 

 when the vessel in which they w-ere being transported w^as 

 lost ui a gale. This was in 1876. In the following year 

 he made collections in Australia, and on the way to New 

 Guinea was shipwrecked, again losing his collections. 



Charles Maries, remembered in gardens by Abies 

 Maricsii and Platycodon Mariesii, when collecting in 

 lapan. shipped his collections "in a vessel laden with sea- 

 weed bound for Hakodate, but which was wrecked the 

 following morning; the seaweed, wet and swollen, had 

 burst open the vessel and the captain ran her ashore. The 

 box containing the seeds was rescued and put into an- 

 other boat, which immediately capsized and sank." 



It surely adds to the interest of gardening and removes 

 any suspicion of humdrumness when we realize the stir- 

 ring incidents that accompanied the introduction of many 

 of our treasures. 



