38 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



tracks will serve his purpose, but he must plunge into the wilds on 

 mule back, up and down streams and rivers, in canoes and rafts, 

 and not unfrequently on foot. 



In looking for new fields exploring the country is absolutely 

 necessary. It is not enough to know that plants can be obtained, 

 but the collector must know his territory, the lay of the country, 

 its rivers, its mountains, and hence he must figure out how the 

 plants can be moved, without which his labors will be in vain. To 

 illustrate this I will mention an incident, on one of my trips. I 

 had struck my Eldorado in the form of a virgin Cattleya district. 

 No man before had ever robbed this forest of its jewels, and to the 

 best of my knowledge no one has been there since. The plants 

 and the varieties were superb, but the problem Avas how to get them 

 out. The nearest I could get to a point from which I could get 

 transportation with certainty was fifty miles; but from where I was 

 I could strike the same river at a point considered not navigable in 

 about six hours. I reasoned that if there was water in the river, 

 even if there were plenty of rocks in it, and the current strong, I 

 could float my plants down in cJinvipafiPs (large canoes), and I 

 set to work accordingly. I packed my plants at night in bags and 

 sent twenty-five or thirty loads down to the river where I had tents 

 pitched. The mules were unloaded and returned for more, until 

 I had the entire lot moved. Now commenced the real battle; I 

 had to go down along the river a considerable distance and try and 

 induce some of the owners of boats to come up where I had the 

 plants, but as they had not done so before they reasoned that it 

 could not be done. I was determined, however, and after con- 

 siderable arrangement I succeeded in convincing two {parties 

 that it could be done, with the result that we started to ascend 

 the strong current. I returned to my plants waiting for the l)oats 

 for several days, when suddenly a freshet came rushing down the 

 river, swelling it out of all pro)K)rtions. I had the plants on a knoll 

 near the river; in a few hours the water cut behind us and we were 

 on an island helpless; we had to abandon our tents, the water eating 

 gradually toward the plants; and it seemed a question of a few 

 minutes and all would be lost. Suddenly the waters stoj^ped 

 advancing (this was during the night) and plants and all were safe. 

 The boats were caught in the freshet anfl had to tie up to some 



