568 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
May 8, 1886. 
old manure is dug in, but we do not find that an 
excessive quantity of manure is beneficial to Celery in 
its early stages, and if the soil is of fairly good quality 
we dispense with the manurial additions entirely. 
This is not of so much consequence for early Celery, 
but if the later plants are grown too grossly they never 
keep well, and are much more readily injured by frost 
or rain. 
Vegetable Marrows are great favourites with us, and 
a number of seedlings are advancing for planting-out 
when danger from frost is past. One portion of the 
garden is sheltered from the north and well open to the 
south, for several reasons it is not quite adapted for 
most vegetable crops, but it is exactly suited to Vege¬ 
table Marrows. We make up a few mounds, about 
6 ft. apart and 2 ft. or 3 ft. high, and on each of these 
three plants will be placed. A good quantity of old 
manure is well incorporated in the soil of these mounds, 
the top of which is about a yard square, hollowed-out 
saucer fashion, and the plants are placed in a triangle, 
the apex of which points to the south, and one Vege¬ 
table Marrow is placed at each angle. About three 
beds planted in this way give us a plentiful supply for 
our own use and some to give to our neighbours. 
Scarlet Runner Beans are indispensable, and we have 
sown a quantity lately. They are, moreover, orna¬ 
mental, and many a trellis or wall can be clothed with 
greenery by their means which would otherwise remain 
bare and unprofitable. For town gardens it is one of 
the best summer-vegetables that can be grown, and the 
supplies furnished by the leading seedsmen are enor¬ 
mous. Some Cabbage and Cauliflower plants have been 
placed out this week in rows 18 ins. apart, and the 
plants 15 ins. asunder in the rows. We usually dibble 
the seedlings out in beds before placing them in their 
permanent quarters ; but this season they were sown 
very thinly, and have made such slow progress that 
they will be better in their rows at once. Some others 
for succession we have, however, dibbled-out, and these 
will be transplanted a little later, when they have 
made some growth.— Scolytus. 
-->X<-- 
THE QUALIFICATIONS OF 
PLANT COLLECTORS. 
In your issue of February 20th, and, I believe, also 
in one or two previous numbers, you answered inquiries 
from “A Young Botanist” on the subject of plant col¬ 
lecting. The advice given by you was certainly good 
as far as it went; but a thorough knowledge of his pro¬ 
fession is not the only essential qualification to ensure 
a successful career in the life your inquirer seems 
anxious to embrace. As an old collector of upwards of 
twenty years’ experience in this country (India), having 
travelled through almost every district, from the 
Kyber Pass on the north to the extreme south of the 
Malay Peninsula, and from the Persian Gulf on the 
west to Sikhim on the east, I may be allowed to know 
something of the game, and my experience is that for a 
man to be a successful collector in addition to being 
thoroughly well up in the class of plants he has to 
collect, he must also possess many other qualifications. 
First, he should have the constitution of a horse to 
withstand not only the effects of a strange climate, but 
also the many vicissitudes found in camp life. Above 
all, he should be self-reliant, ready to turn his hand 
to anything, and always prepared for any emergency 
that may arise. Pitching one’s tent in the heart of a 
jungle, perhaps hundreds of miles from the nearest 
civilised station, is a very different matter to a pic-nic 
in the New Forest; but while a man should be as 
brave as a lion, he must also be as wise as a serpent, 
for he will have to deal with men of various creeds and 
castes—some of them simple good-natured people, but 
the majority a low cunning set, very difficult to manage, 
especially if they once detect the slightest sign of 
weakness. Then, again, a man should be a good shot, 
not only for self-protection against beasts and reptiles, 
but also to provide himself with the delicacies of the 
season, otherwise he will fare very badly in certain 
districts. Preserved provisions are all very well to fall 
back on in time of need, and that is all that can he 
said in their favour. 
I, of course, refer to the old fashioned type of plant 
collector, a man who is not afraid to leave civilisation 
behind him, and take to a jungle life for three or four 
months at a time. The modern Orchid collector is 
quite a different individual ; he does things in a much 
more luxurious style, and rarely goes beyond the bounds 
of civilisation. He stays in his hotel, dak bungalow, 
or rest house, as the case may be, sends out a body of 
native collectors, generally wood-cutters, who are often 
well acquainted with the habitats of the various species. 
These men bring in plants in shoals, the good ones are 
selected, a liberal price is paid for them, and our 
energetic (?), long pursed, modern collector moves to 
fresh fields and pastures new. In the good old days 
before this class of men came into the field Orchid 
collecting was very different work to what it is now, 
as the following incidents will show. 
Earlyin 187—I was upthe Irrawaddy river on a collect¬ 
ing tour, but more particularly in search of a certain 
Dendrobe, which a short time previously had caused a 
great sensation in England ; I was laying at a place 
many miles beyond our frontier station, where I had 
determined to make a halt for a few days before 
commencing our return journey. As the place was 
teeming with Orchids, the head man of a large village 
close by came to visit us, and when he was in¬ 
formed what my business was he seemed considerably 
astonished. He could not understand what the white 
man (the first he had ever seen) could want with jungle 
plants, and when it was explained to him that they 
were to he sent across the Kali pani (ocean), he was 
incredulous ; I was humbugging him or, what was far 
more worse in his eyes—a fool. It took us not only an 
hour’s palavering, but also two or three brass utensils 
as presents before I could propitiate his highness. I 
then produced my hook of drawings, first showing him 
the more common kinds, which I knew were to be 
had in abundance, and gradually led him on to what 
I more particularly required, reserving my plate of 
Dendrobium-till the last. He had recognised many 
of the others I had shown him, and gave us their 
vernacular names, and it was an anxious moment for 
me when I turned up my trump card. Did he know 
it ? or was I again to be disappointed, for that un¬ 
fortunate plate had perhaps been through the hands of 
fifty men of his class without being recognised. My 
anxiety may be imagined when I state that I had got as 
far up the river as it was safe to venture in those 
days. The old man looked at it thoughtfully, first 
shook his head, then suddenly a brilliant idea struck 
him—had I ever seen the plant in flower myself ? Yes ! 
Was the plate exactly the right colour ? At first I 
replied in the affirmative, but on second thought 
remembered that one of the colours had been rather 
overdone—a purplish crimson had been given where a 
deep pink or rosy crimson would have been nearer the 
mark—I explained this, showing him from another 
plate the proper tint. There was no longer any 
hesitation, he knew it well, and it was plentiful 
enough, and so it had been for the last thirty or forty 
miles of my journey, and none of the other men had 
recognised the plate simply because it was wrongly 
coloured. 
Orchids Bought with Beer Bottles. 
I had wandered through miles of forest myself, and 
lived in a miserably country boat for nearly a month 
without any return, simply for this reason, and so it is 
with many of the Orchid plates published. The 
following morning my old friend returned with upwards 
of a hundred plants of the true Simon Pure, and the next 
thing to be done was to strike a bargain for them, not 
a very easy matter as a rule where natives are concerned; 
money was of no use at that time, these men did not 
know its value. I produced a lot of brass utensils, 
cloths, and other articles that I had brought for the 
purpose of barter, and he set to work to make his 
selection. In the midst of this laborious task, his eye 
happened to fall on an empty beer-bottle—here was a 
prize indeed—I noticed the old man’s actions, and 
knew at once that he meant business. After a critical 
examination, he enquired if I would give him this in 
exchange for the plants; it was now my turn to bargain, 
and after much haggling over it, it was agreed that 
he should bring in another hundred plants for it. 
During his absence several other men came in from the 
village ; as soon as they saw the kind of Orchid I wanted, 
and the price for which their head man had bargained, 
they started at once to collect them. Here was a good 
thing certainly, but where were all the bottles to come 
from, The first thing to do was to overhaul my stores ; 
I found I had only thirty-three bottles of beer left, 
and there was nothing to be done but to draw the corks 
and empty the contents into the river. By the following 
evening every hottle had been bartered away, and still 
more plants were coming in ; I showed every article I 
had brought with me for the purpose of trade, but it 
was of no use, bottles, and nothing but bottles would 
they have. 
Well, I had still seven bottles of whiskey left, and I 
could do nothing but sacrifice them, so their contents 
followed the beer into the river, and I set to work to 
sell them to the best advantage. Here was something 
new for them, being of clear glass, and, of course, I 
explained to them that they were very superior to the 
others, and they evidently thought so, as one man 
commenced by offering 300 plants for a bottle, this was 
quickly followed by 350, and, at last came a spirited 
offer of 400. Had I stuck out, I might have got even 
a better figure, but I knocked lot one down at that price, 
and the rest were quickly taken up at the same rate. 
This was probably the first public auction ever held in 
the kingdom of Ava (now a dependency of the British 
Crown). With the assistance of the natives it did not 
take us long to pack the plants and get them into the 
boat, and being a beautiful moonlight night I started 
down the river ; I cannot say that the journey was a 
very agreeable one, joining the temperance league 
under compulsion, being a disagreeable circumstance, 
especially when the only suction available is that 
from an Indian river, frequently teaming with decaying 
vegetable and animal matter ; it is unpleasant in the 
extreme. We arrived in Rangoon, however, without 
any mishap, and with probably the cheapest cargo of 
Orchids ever landed. This is how one of the first large 
shipments of Dendrobium - sent to England was 
collected and paid for. I have frequently been up the 
same river and landed at the same place, again and 
again, and my old friends are glad to greet me, but bottles 
will not go down with them now, they know the value 
of our silver currency and can drive as close a bargain 
as men of any nationality I know.— Judex. 
-- 
MR. W. B. LATHAM. 
The subject of the portrait we, to-day, present to 
our readers was born in 1835 at Bicknacre, a small 
village near Malden, Essex, and at eight years of 
age his parents removed to the neighbourhood of 
Wandsworth. He was educated at the National 
Schools there, and when thirteen years of age went 
to work in the garden of William McNeil, Esq., of 
Wandsworth Common, who subsequently removed to 
Charlton, taking young Latham with him. Mr. 
McNeil was an ardent lover of gardening, with a good 
knowledge of hardy herbaceous plants, and cultivating 
a choice collection of them, young Latham had a 
capital opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of those 
plants, which still continue to be great favourites with 
him. He left here after three and a half year’s servitude, 
and was then apprenticed to the late Mr. Robert Neal, 
of the old Wandsworth Common Nurseries, which at 
that time contained a large collection of hardy trees, 
shrubs, and Roses, as well as a collection of herbaceons 
and Alpine plants. . He remained here about three 
years, during which he took up the study of British 
plants and collecting specimens ; and at that time many 
a good British plant could be found growing on 
Wandsworth Common. An old schoolfellow, the late 
Mr. C. Wilford, then at the Royal Gardens, Kew, was 
often a companion in his rambles, and together they 
collected a large number of plants to be found in that 
part of Surrey. 
A desire for change and a wider field for improve¬ 
ment became a natural wish with Mr. Latham, and at 
the suggestion of Mr. Wilford he went to Kew and 
saw Mr. J. Smith, ex-Curator of the Royal Botanic 
Gardens, and some two or three months after suc¬ 
ceeded in obtaining employment there. For the first six 
months in the large Palm-house, and during that period 
he made a complete list of all the plants in that de¬ 
partment, as well as in each of the other departments 
to which in succession he was removed, thus gaining a 
knowledge of the plants in each. The propagating de¬ 
partment proved of unusual interest to him, for in this 
all new plants received from all parts of the world, 
packed in Wardian cases and in other ways, were un¬ 
packed and seen to, and much instructive knowledge 
was obtained as to successes and failures. “ Whilst in 
this department,” writes Mr. Latham, “I made the 
acquaintance of a very interesting plant in a way not 
soon forgotten—the Stinging Plant (Jatropha urens), 
which was kept in a locked-up small private stove, so 
as to be out of the reach of all save those whose duty it 
was to attend to it. In watering it one day with my 
sleeves turned up, it stung me in the wrist, giving me a 
severe shock, which caused me great pain and a swollen 
