COOL ORCHIDS. 69 
A steamship company may reduce its charge under 
such circumstances, but again and again it will 
happen that the speculator stands out of a thousand 
pounds clean when his boxes are opened. He may 
hope to recover it on the next cargo, but that is 
still a question of luck. No wonder that men 
whose business is not confined to orchids withdrew 
from the risks of importation, returning to roses and 
lilies and daffodowndillies with a new enthusiasm. 
There is another point also, which has vary- 
ing force with different characters. The loss of 
life among those men who “go out collecting” 
has been greater proportionately, than in any class 
of which I have heard. In former times, at least, 
they were chosen haphazard, among intelligent and 
trustworthy employés of the firm. Trustworthi- 
ness was a grand point, for reasons hinted. The 
honest youth, not very strong perhaps in an English 
climate, went bravely forth into the unhealthiest 
parts of unhealthy lands, where food is very scarce, 
and very, very rough; where he was wet through 
day after day, for weeks at a time; where “the 
fever,” of varied sort, comes as regularly as Sunday ; 
where from month to month he found no one with 
whom to exchange a word. I could make out a 
startling list of the martyrs of orchidology. 
Among Mr. Sander’s collectors alone, Falkenberg 
