The Opelousas courier., 1891-05-23
THE STORY OF AN ORCHID,
SEARCHING THE wILDs OF fmnfA
FOR a RARE VARIETY.

PSsSHO G1nC-lgHdGluS F0fSC6rmann
-one who introduced some of the best
varieties we have, and who is most com
petent to speak on this subject. Among
the many valuable orchids which he in.
troduced, and which were most difficult
to procure, he selected the story OF the
hndlng OF that now we'll known variety,
Cypripedium Spicerianum.
This is one of a class which is found
IN various forms in almost every section
OF the world. The large inflated pouch
which is characteristic of this species
suggested not only the English name of
"Lady's Slipper" but also the Latin one
of Cy~pridedium, or "Venus's Slipper"
Some of them are natives of this coun.
try, and no less than six varieties are
found in New York State. In this couu
try they are known as "Mooassin Flow.
er," and the European species, Cypripe.
dunn calceolus, has been known for d
long time as 'tCalceolus Marie," or
"hary's Shoe" SO that wherever found
the close resemblance of the pouch to a
foot covering of some sort has been en-
PaoSi1CA Il tlIG CUul1OH QdWG. Bu6 IS
proceed with Mt. Forstermann1s story.
In 1878 a gentleman named spicer, re-
siding in England, received from his
brother in India a plant of the variety
which was subsequently named Spiceri
num in his honor. So beautiful was it
in the eyes of connoisseurs and 60 dis
tinct from anything before introduced
that fabulous sums were offered for even
q small piece of it, but this gentleman
for a time steadfastly refused to part
with it, until repeated solicitations finally.
prevailed and he let one of the leading
hufserymen have some of it. It was
known, of course, that somewhere In
India more of it might be found, but no
definite information could be obtained as
to what locality it came from, so that it
was apparently a hopeless task to send
any enc TO look for it. Mr.. Forstermann,
however, was more sanguine than others,
and eventually volunteered to try and
find it. In the summer of 1880, there
fore, he left England en route for India,
and in due course of time reached CAL
cutta, where he was to begin his investi-
cations.
The only clew he had to work on was
the name of "Spicerianum," which indi-
Gated that some one named Spicer first
procured it, and after endless inquiry he
learned that a man of that name located
in the northeast portion of the province
of Bengal was a consignor of tea which
came from Assam, and with this slender
thread for a guide he began his search.
Mr.. ForsGermann left Calcutta and
started up the Ganges by the regular
steamer, thence up the Brahmaputra as
far as the regular lines Of travel would
take him. When about four hundred
miles from the coast he began the most
difficult part of his journey, as he was
then compelled to purchase a boat and
hire natives to row him. He proceeded
up the river by slow stages, thoroughly
searching the country as he went, but
| never going far from the river, as these
plants are usually to be found close to
the water. So the journey was continued
| without hope of success until .Goulpara
| WAS IEdGuEu duu d bCd Cu1afha vac LbOS
which was owned in part by Mr.. Spicer.
By diligent inquiry it was learned that
sometimes orchids were sometimes
brought over that route, but nothing
| definite could be learned. What the
average Hindoo knows about orchids is
infnitesimally small.
So the weary search went on until
| Manipur was reached, and here his pass
port gave out. This was a serious mat
ter, as the maharajah was not very
friendly to travellers, and although it was
easy enough to go into his dominions,
vet it would undoubtedly be very DIM
cult to get out.
To make matters worse the natives
absolutely refused to go any further, but
after such q long and fruitless journey
our intrepid explorer decided it would
never do to go back, and SO he deter
mined to try every means, and, II neces-
sary, to go ON alone.
By dint of persuasion and an extra
liberal amount of t~sbacksheesh" he in
duced the most venturesome among the
Hindoos to accompany him and brave
the maharajah. Leaving the others be-
hind he again took to the river, stopping
at every place which gave promise oil
finding what he sought, and thoroughly
searching the country on both sides
Of the river. He would ascend
every little tributary, and, leaving the
most trusted of the natives in charge OF
the boat, would head a search party
himself. Occasionally he would divide
his party into two, giving instructions to
| the native contingent to bring him in
anything in the shape of an orchid bios
som which they would find.
One of these separate parties while
beating through q jungle were unfcrtu-
nate enough to meet a tiger, and n OF
them was killed. This nearly caused the
entire party to desert him, but more
PROMISES. more threats and another lib.
eral allowance of ssbacksheesh" induced
| them to continue the search.
III they were unfortunate enough e
meet the tiger they were lucky enough
not to be molested by the human tigers
If the maharaiah, and for this they were
thankful. They were now over a thou
sand miles from Calcutta, wearied out
with underwriting travel. Even NH,
Fostermann began to think ne came on
4 fools errand, but he decided to con-
| tinue another week, and if he met VIII
no success then he would return. The
dav after coming to this decision ne ieft