The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-01-30

what would be Sc 600 in our money was at one
time paid for a single bulb.
'"Fhe highest price | ever received continued
Mr. Norris was paid me by Mr. Corning 1t
was for orchid about large as a dinner
plate. 1t is now described in his catalogue I'M
der the name of Cattaleya Heretti8, named in
honor of his daughter, and for which he paid me
$135 This plant, which brought me so much
money is frequently seen. but it is usually i'm
possible to get them. The plant now in posses
sion of Mr.. Corning l found on a log floating
down the Rio Negro The flower is pure white,
with purple stain on its lips. Orchids will re
main in bloom in our green houses from six to
eight weeks, constantly emitting perfume. These
plants may be found blooming in the tropics
every month in the year. blooming and fading
and blooming again, but there fertilize
them in a few days, whereas in our conserva-
tories their blooms last longer The specimens
of the Cattaleya Heretti@ that l have seen We're
on trees nearly hundred feet from
the ground, great masses of white snow
flowers, but impossible to get them
The trees upon which they were found not
only had enormous girth, but their extreme
hardness made all efforts at cutting them, done
by my Indians, futile. No Indian would at
tempt anything of the kind. You can have no
idea of the height of trees in the South Amer
can tropics. They go up, up, ever upward above
the thick vegetation and the clinging vines
struggling to reach the air and light The vines
sometimes aid the Indians in climbing the trees
Besides this they have q peculiar method all
their own. They will take piece of bark, say
four or five feet long from a small tree, and in
climbing up large tree, place the bark on the
opposite side, their wrists and feet being tied by
strings to the piece of bark, and so they will
climb and when tired lean back and rest, the
bark holding them to the tree.
The reporter ventured to suggest telegraph
climbing boots. Wouldn't do at ALL said Mr..
Morris; ''the wood is so hard the spikes could
not be driven into ii. In Brazil paid an Indian
what would be here, fifty cents day and fed him.
Many of the valuable orchids l found in low
flooded forests where the miasm is most deadly.
| brought back less than thousand on my last
trip, many of them dying during transportation
do not believe salt air is injurious to them and
so believing, in spite of the books, l carried
mine on the open deck of the steamer, instead
of putting them in the hold. By my way have
been successful thus far, and if succeed as /
hope to do in getting $1,000 worth together I
shall bring them on deck and pile them round
the smokestack My wife will not be with me
this trip, but next winter if can be near civil
ization 1 shall send for her to join me.
what are the dangers from the IndiansW
inquired the reporter.
81 do not take that into account at all. The
climatic dangers are greatest and next to that
poisonous snakes. l fear snakes more than any
thing else, the little ones, not the great con-
StrictorS.
RECENTLY DISCOVERED VARIETIES.
'How many new species of orchids have you
discoveredl'
81 have found ten new varieties not named or
described before inEany book, and which were,
previous to my finding them entirely unknown
to science. Orchids are local in their distribu-
ton. Sc that you may find one species in a
small and circumscribed locality, and though
you keep your eyes open for it elsewhere under
what may be similar surroundings, you never
find it, and never will find it except in the one
special place that it seems to have appropriated
to itself. Orchids are epiphytal and terrestrial
An epiphytal plant is one that grows upon other
plants 1.-THE South American orchids usually grow
upon trees), but does not derive its nouTishment
from them, so it is an air-plant The lady
slipper is a terrestrial orchid There are two
species of orchids tepdendrum) in Florida. Or
chids are found all over the world, and even
run up to the snow limit. There are most
terrestrial orchids in the East Indies, in Borneo
and Java, and these ground growing plants are
highly esteemed in England, where they bring
more money, with few exceptions, than the tree
growing varieties. The finest class of orchids l
expect to get in Columbia and Venezuela is the
odontoglossom, which is a cool orchid, growing
on the sides of mountains, and is without doubt
most beautiful and of great value. This orchid
requires hot-house and will thrive in our
greenhouses. This plant is often found on the
Andes up to the snow limit Though so large
a family, the orchids yield but few useful prod
ucts, the most important, commercially, being
the pods of the vanilla. The simulative forms of
the orchids are sometimes wonderful The flow
ers of one species look much like butterfly, an
other like the mouth of cutie fish, another like
a spider, another like dove, while others take
on other strange and grotesque FORMS"