262 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [SEPTEMBER, 1908. 
introduced. I wonder whether the following furnishes the clue. It has 
just appeared under the heading of ‘‘ The Tale of the Scarlet Butterflies.” 
But what have scarlet butterflies got to do with Orchids? the reader 
may ask. Let the author explain :—‘‘ There are Orchids that imitate birds, 
reptiles, insects in plenty, but there is no Orchid, save the one discovered 
thus accidentally by the Sea-Queen, that you simply cannot tell from a living 
scarlet butterfly of huge size until you touch it. Perhaps the English Bee- 
Orchid, not known to very many, is the nearest parallel.” 
Now the Bee-Orchid we know, and we naturally want to hear something 
about the other, so let us proceed :—‘‘ Each butterfly was as big as a 
sparrow ; all had shining dark-eye spots on their brilliant wings, setting off 
the pure scarlet of their hue, and somewhere about the head of every one 
trembled long, spiral, horn-like antennz, of a crimson as bright as the 
wings.” 
Now the Sea-Queen was wearing “‘ a white dress, full, soft and fleeting, on 
which a swarm of marvellous scarlet butterflies seemed to have settled. They 
quivered on the round of the shoulder like crimson epaulets, they perched 
upon the hem, they fluttered up the skirt in long loose trails, they gathered 
on the bosom in splendid knots, they lay like red light of sunset among the 
massy black waves of her hair. . . . What, and whence, were those 
strange and lovely insects? Were'they alive or dead? And where, in the 
name of all probabilities, had she contrived to get them? ” 
But I am forgetting to explain the situation. It is an island in the 
Pacific, ‘‘ Motua,” a place with a Resident Commissioner or Chief Magistrate, 
“who kept as much state as many full-blown governors,” and he was now 
giving a sort of dinner party, with the Sea Queen as one of the guests. ‘‘ He 
stood upon the steps of his own wide, green shaded verandah, and welcomed 
the visitors as they came in.” But one came not, and the dinner could not 
wait. At length—they had got past the dessert—she appears. ‘‘ Her 
toilette ! ’’—but that we have seen, and have already guessed why she was so 
late. The event made a stir, of course, and the Resident Magistrate, being 
“very anxious to know what the decoration was,” went over to her, and 
“asked her point blank what on earth she had got hold of.” 
““* There aren’t any butterflies of that sort in the Pacific that ever I—’ 
he was beginning, when he stopped ’— 
“* Orchids!’ he fairly yelled.” 
All of which was very rude! But then there are *‘two men in the 
Pacific who know everything about Orchids,” and the Resident Magistrate 
was one of them, so we must make excuses for his excitement, especially as 
