30 ABOUT ORCHIDS. 
enterprising enough to secure a few cases of the 
Dendrobium might:look for a grand return. It 
seemed likely that New Guinea would prove to be 
its chief habitat, and thither Mr. Micholitz was 
despatched. He found it without difficulty, and 
collected a great number of plants. But then 
troubles began. The vessel which took them 
aboard caught fire in port, and poor Micholitz 
escaped with bare life. He telegraphed the 
disastrous news, “ Ship burnt! What do?” “Go 
back,” replied his employer. “Too late. Rainy 
season,’ was the answer. “Go back!” Mr. 
Sander repeated. Back he went. 
This was in Dutch territory. “Well,” writes 
Mr. Micholitz, “there is no doubt these are the 
meanest people on earth. On my telling them 
that it was very mean to demand anything from a 
shipwrecked man, they gave me thirty per cent. 
deduction on my passage”—z2oI1 dollars instead 
of 280 dollars. However, he reached New Guinea 
once more and tried fresh ground, having ex- 
hausted the former field. Again he found the 
Dendrobiums, of better quality and in greater 
number than before. But they were growing 
among bones and skeletons, in the graveyard of 
the natives. Those people lay their dead ina 
slight coffin, which they place upon the rocks just 
