THE ORCHID REVIEW. 325 
ODONTOGLOSSUM CRISPUM IN ITS NATIVE HOME. 
By FLORENT CLAEs, Brussels. 
I THINK I wrote in the Journal des Orchidées about the year 1890, that the 
form of Odontoglossum crispum known under the name of the “ Pacho 
type,” threatened to become extinct in the more or less immediate future: 
Ten years have not yet elapsed, and we already appear to have arrived at 
the end of the good collections which were formerly obtained in the region 
properly called the Pacho district. 
The supply of the species has been exhausted, not only by the persistent 
hunt that has been carried on, but also in great part by the destruction of 
the forests, for the creation of pastures and plantations of various kinds. 
This is the reason why Odontoglossum crispum is rare there to-day, and 
why, with twice as many men, it now takes longer to collect a hundred 
plants than it did formerly to collect a thousand. How different it is now 
from the time when the first collectors made their appearance at Pacho, 
nearly forty years ago! 
I may relate a story told me by the late Mrs, Bunch, who died only 
three years ago. She was the wife of a rich colonist of English origin, who, 
at the time in question, was proprietor, so to speak, of all the municipality 
of Pacho. 
“Funck and Schlim,” she told me, “were the first botanists who came 
to Pacho in search of the famous plant, both of them ignorant that the 
forest abounded in it. The forest at this period descended down to the foot 
of the village. We accompanied these gentleman in their excursion, and 
half an hour after starting, without our having cut down a single tree, we 
returned with about ten peons bent down with the weight of ‘aquadigas ’— 
the local name for Odontoglossum—which we had collected. Funck and 
his companion rejected three-fourths of the plants, preserving only the very 
Strongest pieces.” 
The forests immediately around Pacho have now disappeared, owing to 
the reasons given at the commencement of this article, and the 
Odontoglossums which formerly grew there have in consequence totally 
perished. The few. rare consignments of the true type which this forest 
still gives from time to time, come from the remote or least accessible parts, 
Which have escaped the search of the peons; or it may be because that part 
of the forest has been carefully guarded by the proprietor, who knew that 
the much coveted plants represented to him a little pot of money, if not a 
small fortune. Sometimes, as the result of constant entreaties, he would 
Permit the plants to be collected, for which he would naturally secure a very 
§0od return. 
“Only to think,” reflects he, pocketing his money, “ that each ‘oignon 
