MY EX-COLLECTOR WALLIS. 



e statements , and 

 »rs' Chronicle, and 

 nzeiting and in the 

 ,ss uncontradicted, 

 iveller, although I 



t,l permitted 

 to set forth 



) say may he 



or several years, he besought my 

 i> entreaty, and shortly afterwards 



a- collector. This was probably 

 is live, for, far from having sacri- 

 iut.-re.sts, as he now affirms, his 

 .■ was, on the contrary, a piece 

 vi-il him from poverty and assured 

 ini poor, unknown and forsaken; 

 ic, a small fortune, a museum of 

 ned in his native town in Germany 



durinn his voyages) and honours, 

 lenee, such as a collector never 



novice in his calling I guided him 

 iy own experience and from my 

 ■l!"d from t he mouths of the Ama- 



t n .if ><)<>. The expenses of crossing 

 ■iioriuous, and the returns were 

 ice of the bad state in which the 

 several introductions which made 

 b journey remained unproductive 

 e classic ground of the genera 

 aUia, many of which were discc 

 died. Following my directions 



1 »'^' ^i»««Hl them - in a manner of speaking 

 • Moreover, this voyage had not the slighte 

 ntions. It was simply a commercial enterpris 

 r the purpose of supplying the wants of n 



Ihe idea, its accomplishment, and the 

 ea to me alone. Regardless of the i 

 agent, Iliad bright, if I chose, to omit all 

 1 Dame :ui(l ot the habitats of the plants — a 

 1 ' "" ^ r ' ! ' " u llUl > knowledge of commercial 



me dictated, in order to avoid competition. 



English importers of plants act in a similar manner, and let 

 those who would blame them remember what has happened 

 in Wallis' case. In fact, if, instead of making him known 

 by all the means in my power, associating his name with 

 the plants received and obtaining medals for him at the 

 exhibitions, I had left him in the obscurity from which 

 unassisted he would never have emerged , he would not have 





..: - 



- others the 



experience which he 



gained through my teaching and at my cost. I deny most 

 positively the right of Mr. Wallis to speak of the plants 

 which he has been commissioned to collect for me , or of the 

 localities in which they were found. In carrying out a com- 

 mercial mission for me and at my expense, he would only 

 have done his duty, as any one else would have done ; but 

 how stands the case? Inflated with self-importance, Wallis 

 deserted me once; but after an absence of two years I was 

 so imprudent as to take him into my service again, imagining 

 that a remorseful conscience brought him back again to me 

 and for this act I experienced the most sorry recompense. 

 Continuing to mention his name after such proceedings would 

 be simply to reward ingratitude and encourage defection. 

 I disdainfully decline to criticise the false pretensions of 

 Mr. Wallis concerning the introduction of Cattleya gigas 

 and Curmeriapicturata; but, desirous to render to Caesar 

 the things that are Caesars , I declare that it is not true that 

 these plants were introduced by Wallis , but that their first 

 introduction to my stoves is due to Mr. Roezl. Had Mr. Wallis 

 succeeded in introducing the plants, mentioned by his claims, 

 would it have been necessary for me to go to the expense of 

 a second expedition for the purpose ? With regard to the part 

 that Wallis claims to have played in my service, it is scarcely 

 necessary for me to mention that, after more than ten years 

 scientific travels, carried out at the order of the Belgian 

 Government, I have since employed myself during thirty 

 years in the organisation of expeditions in different parts 

 of the world, and during that long period I have had from 

 eight to ten collectors, as well , and some better known, thanks 

 to me, than Wallis. My chief introductions were made long 

 before I knew him. Odontoglmsums and Jfasdevallias flour- 

 ished in my houses ten years before they became fashionable 

 with amateurs , yet none of my collectors made the ridiculous 

 pretentions raised by Wallis. If such absurd claims were 

 admitted, there is no reason why each and all of my garde- 

 ners should not urge similar claims. Collectors, both before 

 and after Wallis , have never failed me. Other expeditions 

 are at the present moment in course of execution, and there 

 is no cause to suppose that the services of my actual tra- 

 vellers will he less than those rendered by a man who, in 



the 



ingratitude and bad feeling. 



