CHAPTER VII 
GOOD-BYE TO DINAWA 
Amone the scientific specimens I brought back to 
Dinawa was a new phallonopsis which I had dis- 
covered near [Fa-lo-foida as we returned from our 
camp on the St. Joseph. ‘This orchid is one of the 
superb treasures that occasionally reward the seeker 
as he passes through the wilds of New Guinea. It 
was found growing in the fork of a tree, where it 
had plenty of shade and a rich damp bed of moss 
and leaves. The leaves were a very brilliant dark 
green, and on the spray, which was quite 3 feet 
long, grew thirty magnificent white flowers of 
exquisite fragrance. Hach specimen must have 
measured 24 inches in diameter when the sepals 
and petals were extended. Its whiteness fulfilled 
the most rigid canons of the orchid fancier, for in 
judging orchids there are whites and whites. The 
value is determined by substance. You may get 
a white that is very satisfactory, but there is a 
thick waxiness of blossom that gives to a plant the 
very highest value, and this delightful specimen was 
as near the ideal as anything I have ever seen. It 
had, of course, pseudo-bulbs, and did not live on 
the tree, which is merely used as a means of support, 
and the plant draws its nourishment from the humidity 
of the atmosphere. 
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