Chapter Fourteen 
MADAGASCAR (II) 
AVING gained valuable experience on my first expedition 
to Madagascar I was anxious to return to do even better. 
My eldest brother, who had spent twenty years in western Aus- 
tralia, had returned to England with his family about this time, 
and his eldest daughter Delys, then aged nineteen, was very keen 
to accompany me. It was certainly a grand way of providing an 
outlet for her adventurous spirit and an opportunity for seeing 
an out-of-the-way part of the world. 
Our arrival in Madagascar early in 1935 coincided with the 
flowering season of many orchids, and on our way by train 
through the eastern rain-forests we saw numbers of Angraecum 
superbum and A. sesquipedale in bloom. The former has greenish- 
white flowers about four inches across, and the latter ivory-white 
blooms averaging six inches with a spur about a foot long. It is 
strange that Madagascar is so rich in its variety of epiphytic 
orchids as compared with the African mainland. A great many, 
such as the Angraecums, have no pseudo-bulbs, and are therefore 
difficult to transport unless established on pieces of bark. 
Our destination was again Lake Alaotra as I had been com- 
missioned to get another collection of waterfowl. My former col- 
lecting base—the station at Ambatosoratra—was now in full 
operation and was occupied by station staff. 
Whilst making arrangements for somewhere to settle down, 
we stayed at Ambatondrazaka, some miles south of the lake, this 
being the only place at that time supporting an hotel. Most of 
the houses here were two-storied and were made of unburned red 
brick. The hotel proprietor was a colored man whose chocolate- 
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