House and Garden 
1 hat this condition 
of things is the same 
to-day is illustrated by 
the statement of Julius 
Roehrs, a well-known 
New jersey nursery¬ 
man who has four men 
at present in the trop¬ 
ics. One of these men 
recently wrote of los¬ 
ing twenty of his na¬ 
tives from yellow fever, 
riie following extracts 
are from a letter 
received from another 
of the men, a French 
collector of many 
years’ experience. 
“Honda, Oct., 19-. 
My dear M r.—Pas- 
slng Bogota the other 
day 1 found your kind 
letter telling of the for¬ 
tunate arrival of the 
orchids. 1 have had 
no heart to write be¬ 
fore. Oh yes, I have 
more than time to write 
you, but 1 get in such 
a temper that it is diffi¬ 
cult to write anybody. 
I'o tell you the truth I 
am feeling quite sad all 
over with the business. ^ ou may fancy how horrified 
I was at the misery and disheartedness of the people 
of Colombia. To begin with, from Borongerilla 
to Honda, I was fourteen long days in literally a 
cholera hospital. 
“We had no less than ninety-five deaths on board 
during tbe passage. 1 bad to watch the agony of 
those poor fellows from ten to sixty years of age, 
soldiers, dying of hunger, dysentery and yellow fever. 
1 fared the best all throtigb that passage. Mon Dieu! 
not even a Christian burial "their bodies were simply 
thrown overboard into the river. 
“Next at Honda I found the recommendations and 
advice given me to be equally treacherous. After 
three weeks looking around in the districts, I de¬ 
termined to set up at Nataguinio. The people were 
afraid to come down from the hills lest they be 
recruited. All the houses had been burned. The 
people had no homes, and ‘after the war the 
drought. ’ 
“The plants were very much shrivelled. 1 had 
started with a lot of seventy-five cases and pushed 
on, killing my brave mules. Five trips like that in 
six montbs—and sucb roads made by the Spanish 
conqueror and never repaired since. What 1 suffered 
PHAL^NOPSIS AMAI 5 ILIS, SCH ILL K RI AN A, STUARTIANA, ETC. 
from three months’ association with these men 1 
can’t tell you. What work to secure enough wood 
to build rafts. S. sent another letter that one hundred 
cases were all lost. Came down with two rafts in 
five days—thought it would be wise to embark them 
in the River Magdalena. Next by bis instruc¬ 
tions I went to S. at Muzo, but this was a loss 
for me for tbe plants were never collected. This 
is where the celebrated mine of Esmeralda of tbe 
Colombian government is located. However, 1 got 
six cases. 
“Then I started for the Cresptim with one hundred 
men, Colombians, trying to make a living and at 
heart ready to kick out all foreigners.” 
Every collector has his especial territories and may 
go again and again to the same place. 
Another retired orchid hunter told of going out 
from Bogota with his natives, and of gathering a 
large quantity of plants, but when loaded down and 
on their return, they discovered specimens so much 
finer that the first lot was thrown away. The next 
year this man was much astonished to find the dis¬ 
carded plants in excellent condition and growing in 
the moss at the foot of the trees. This time they 
were not abandoned. 
94 
