ae 7 on Eee Oy 
r Che Orchid Review : 
£. VoL. XXIII. May, 1915. No. 269. 
¢ 2b? 
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igi OUR NOTE BOOK. Ae 
A CORRESPONDENT obligingly sends us the annexed newspaper 
cutting, which, he thinks, is too good to be lost :— 
MAD ORCHID HUNTERS. 
TREASURES GIVEN AWAY LIKE CIGARETTES. 
Express Correspondent, 
New York, April 6th. 
A wonderful story of Orchid hunters who went mad in the search for 
rare blossoms was told by Dr. W. E. Aughinbaugh, of New York, during 
his visit to the International Flower Show here. 
When he saw at one of the stands some of the rare varieties of 
Odontoglossi Cattleya cypripedize and Phalznopsis, he at once recognised 
specimens which were gathered in a British expedition to Venezuela about 
ten years ago. 
The doctor went with a party to the help of the Orchid hunters. 
“In shooting the rapids of the Orinoco some of the canoes upset,” said’ 
“and the loss of these, with the loss of food supplies, drove the 
partly from disappointment, partly from 
the doctor, 
Englishmen and Indians insane, 
hunger. 
“They had to live on monkeys, parrots, and coconuts for days, and 
for long stretches in the deep jungles and swamps could get no food at all. 
When we found them most of them were dazed, and some were gibbering” 
idiots. 
‘‘ And through it all some of these me 
Orchid plants as if they were children. 
Caracas, in their madness gave these rare specimens t 
they had been cigarettes. 
‘A few of the recipients were Americans, 
specimens to friends in the United States.” 
n clung desperately to certain 
Some of them, on reaching 
o strangers just as if 
and they sent these rare 
We seem to have heard of that Expedition before, but some of the 
129 
