THE LOST ORCHID. 179 
by accident—possibly collected in distant parts by 
some poor fellow who died at Rio. Swainson 
picked them up, and used them to stow his lichens. 
Not least extraordinary, however, in this extra- 
ordinary tale is the fact that.various bits of C. 2. 
vera turned up during this time. Lord Home 
hasa noble specimen at Bothwell Castle, which 
did not come from Swainson’s consignment. His 
gardener told the story five years ago. “I am 
quite sure,’ he wrote, “that my nephew told me 
the small bit I had from him ”—forty years before 
—“was off a newly-imported plant, and I under- 
stood it had been brought by one of Messrs. 
Horsfall’s ships.” Lord Fitzwilliam seems to 
- have got one in the same way, from another ship. 
But the most astonishing case is recent. About 
seven years ago two plants made their appearance 
in the Zoological Gardens at Regenit’s Park—in the 
conservatory behind Mr. Bartlett’s house. How 
they got there is an eternal mystery. Mr. 
Bartlett sold them for a large sum; but an equal 
sum offered him for any scrap of information 
showing how they came into his hands he was 
sorrowfully obliged to refuse—or, rather, found 
himself unable to earn. They certainly arrived 
in company with some monkeys ; but when, from 
what district of South America, the closest search 
N 2 
