A LEGEND OF ROEZL 



So soon as I began to take interest in orchids I was struck 

 with the number of odd facts and incidents in that field of 

 botany. One gains but a glimpse of them, as a rule, in some 

 record of travel or some scientific treatise ; and at an early 

 date it occurred to me that if the stories to which these frag- 

 ments belong could be recovered, they would prove to be not 

 only curious and interesting but amusing — sometimes terrible. 

 I began to collect, therefore, and in the pages following 

 I offer some of the results. 



It is right to begin with a legend of Roezl, if only 

 because his name will often recur ; but also he was in- 

 comparably the greatest of those able and energetic men 

 who have roamed the savage world in search of new 

 plants for our study and enjoyment. Almost any other 

 mortal who had gone through adventures and experiences 

 such as his in our time would have made a book and a 

 sensation ; but the great collector never published anything, 

 I believe, beyond a statement of scientific facts from time to 

 time. This is not the place to deal with his career ; I am 

 only telling stories. But it is not to be dismissed without 

 a word. 



Roezl will be gratefully remembered so long as science 

 and horticulture survive the triumph of democracy. I have 

 heard it alleged that he discovered eight hundred new 



