114 ABOUT ORCHIDS. 
In avowing a certain indifference to Cattleyas, I 
referred to the bulk, of course. The most gorgeous, 
the stateliest, the most imperial of all flowers on 
this earth, is C. Dowzana—unless it be C. aurea, a 
“ geographical variety” of the same. They dwell 
a thousand miles apart at least, the one in Colombia, 
the other in Costa Rica ; and neither occurs, so far 
as is known, in the great intervening region. Not 
even a connecting link has been discovered ; but 
the Atlantic coast of Central America is hardly 
explored, much less examined. In my time it was 
held, from Cape Camarin to Chagres, by indepen- 
dent tribes of savages—not independent in fact 
alone, but in name also. The Mosquito Indians 
are recognized by Europe as free; the Guatusos 
kept a space of many hundred miles from which 
no white man had returned ; when I was in those 
parts, the Talamancas, though not so unfriendly, 
were only known by the report of adventurous 
pedlars. I made an attempt — comparatively 
spirited—to organize an exploring party for the 
benefit of the Guatusos, but no single volunteer 
answered our advertisements in San José de Costa 
Rica; I have lived to congratulate myself on that 
disappointment. Since my day a road has been 
cut through their wilds to Limon, certain luckless 
Britons having found the money for a railway; 
