COOL ORCHIDS. IOI 
One of the most experienced collectors, M. 
Oversluys, writes from the Rio de Yanayacca, 
January, 1893 :— 
“ Here it is absolutely necessary that one goes 
himself into the woods ahead of the peons, who 
are quite cowards to enter the woods; and not 
altogether without reason, for the larger part of 
them get sick here, and it is very hard to enter— 
nearly impenetrable and full of insects, which make 
fresh-coming people to get cracked and mad. I 
have from the wrist down not a place to put in a 
shilling piece which is not a wound, through the 
very small red spider and other insects. Also my 
people are the same. Of the five men I took out, 
two have got fever already,and one ran back. 
To-morrow I expect other peons, but not a single 
one from Mengobamba. It is a trouble to get 
men who will come into the woods, and I cannot 
have more than eight or ten to work with, because 
when I should not be continually behind them or 
ahead they do nothing. It is not a question of 
money to do good here, but merely luck and the 
way one treats people. The peons come out less 
for their salaries than for good and plenty of food, 
which is very difficult to find in these scarce times. . . 
“The plants are here one by one, and we have 
got but one tree with three plants. They are on 
