SEPTEMBER, 1908. | THE ORCHID REVIEW. 263 
“*a new Orchid may be worth its weight not in gold, but in diamonds. 
And this was the newest of the new.” No wonder the Magistrate fairly 
“gasped,” . . . “his hands quivering over the flowers with eagerness to 
handle them.” 
The lady ‘‘ courteously detached one or two, and gave them to him, 
explaining that they were the flowers of something she had taken for a small 
yam, that grew on one spot of Iorana, and one only. She had all the roots 
dug up, and put in one of the cabins, and they had flowered during the voy- 
age unexpectedly.” The Magistrate drew a long breath, and to cut a long 
story short, surprised the lady by informing her that she was worth, as she 
stood, some ten thousand pounds. ‘‘ Whata find!” The lady’s husband 
was severely practical, and at once entered into a discussion as to the best 
means of selling the roots, and the best price to be obtained, while the 
Magistrate agreed to come down to the ship in the morning to see the 
roots, and decide about their disposal. 
The reader has now gathered that the party reached the island in a 
yacht, and thither they returned after the dinner party, with new ideas 
about those wonderful scarlet butterflies, and the fortune that had suddenly 
fallen into their hands.” ‘The cabin ports of the Sybil shone out in 
unwonted light’ as they approached, and there were sounds of revelry. 
Evidently there was a party on board too, for which permission had not 
been given. ‘‘It may have been second sight or it may not,” but they ran. 
‘“The cabin was full of chiefs—Motua chiefs,’’ and ‘‘some were leaning, 
stupid and half senseless, across the narrow table.” On it were ‘‘ the 
remains, in two or three plates, of the roots from the cabin—the roots 
worth their weight in diamonds ’—the roots that were to have “‘ opened the 
gate of fortune ’”—‘‘ the roots that had come from far Iorana, and that were 
nowhere else in the known world to be obtained. Not even on Iorana 
could they be had now, for every one had been taken away. And the 
Motuan Chiefs had—eaten them.” 
Now don’t imagine that the condition the chiefs were in was the result 
of spirits. ‘‘ The white pig of a cook had drunk all the spirits before they 
got on board.’ It was the effect of eating those yams. ‘‘ Now they were 
one and all suffering from the results. . . . They did not know the 
hypnotic influence of the strange root on which they had supped.” 
This is not quite all, but here we may leave the subject, for the rest 
concerns the chiefs rather than the Orchid. But was this the scarlet 
Phalznopsis ? I cannot say, but I should like to hear, the views of the 
eminent Professor on the subject. ARGUS. 
