STORY OF CYPRIPEDIUM PLATYTAENIUM 207 



Now for the legend. That consignment of Cyp. Stoneii 

 in which platytaenium appeared was forwarded by Sir Hugh 

 Low from Sarawak. He recalls the circumstances with 

 peculiar distinctness, as is natural. The plants were collected 

 on the very top of a limestone hill at Bidi, near Bau, famous 

 afterwards in the annals of Sarawak as the spot whence the 

 Chinese insurgents started to overthrow the government of 

 Rajah Brooke. But the gold washings had not been dis- 

 covered then. Such Chinamen as dwelt in the neighbour- 

 hood were mostly gardeners and small traders. A few 

 sought nuggets in holes and fissures of the limestone, and 

 found them, too, occasionally. Sir Hugh Low could never 

 frame a satisfactory explanation of the presence of gold 

 under such conditions, but it is frequent in Borneo. That 

 auriferous strata should decompose, and that nuggets should 

 be transferred to another formation during the process, is 

 easily intelligible. But in many instances, as at Bau, the 

 gold is found at a considerable height, and no trace remains 

 of those loftier hills from which it must have fallen. 

 Deposits of tin occur under just the same circumstances in 

 the Malay Peninsula. 



The top of this little hill was a basin, much like a 

 shallow crater, encircled by jagged peaks as by a wall. 

 Each of these was clothed in the glossy leaves of Cyp. 

 Stoneii from top to bottom, as it would be with ivy in our 

 latitude. So easy was orchid-collecting in those days. Sir 

 Hugh had but to choose the finest, and pull off as many as 

 his servants could carry. In the hollow of the basin other 

 Cypripeds were growing — plants with spotted foliage — and 

 he has not ceased to regret leaving these untouched, since 

 wider knowledge inclines him to fancy that they belonged to 

 species not yet introduced. At one spot, however, beneath 

 the shadow of the little peaks, gold-seekers made a practice 

 of camping. Ashes lay thick there, and bits of charcoal and 



