The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-09
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PEHILS OF ORCHID HUNTING.
A Savage Tribe Dispersed by the
Loss of Its Powered Tree.

n
Loss of Its Powered Tree.
Should Uncle Sam decide to keep all
SPANS colonies, those gentlemen, the or
child hunters viii have reason TO rejoice.
East or west these tropic islands are
among The happiest hunting grounds for
the flowers of the air. Yearly many men
90 in search of them at inconceivable risk
Of life and limb. Some few are scientific
enthusiasts, or the agent of scientific in
stitutes. The most part, however, go for
revenue only. Not every man can hunt
orchids successfully-in this calling, as
in most others, ability commands high
market price
Statistics are uninteresting-still 1t is
worth while to be told that the business
of orchid growing and orchid collecting,
though begun as late as 1850 now en-
pioys a good many millions of capital.
Both here and abroad there are collections
whose value runs well up into the hundred
thousands, and collectors with nerve
enough to pay 5000 for a single specimen
provided it be sufficiently unique. Furth-
| er, there was at least one grower
| long headed enough to refuse more than
So 600 for an absolutely unique plant. It
| was seedIess and could be multiplied only
by the tedious process of roofing leaf cut
tings-hence he saw his profit in such
multiplication, and preferred to sell hum
dred plants at a thousand each, even
though he had to wait some years to do it,
Such men stand back of the orchid hun
ters proper. Usually three or four Euro
peans so together to a tropic port, engage
from fifty to 100 natives, buy all manner
of supplies, and strike straight into the
widest interior. Often the men carry
everything; sometimes there is bullock
train, or even a train of bullock carts
But this Is impractcable in the true viz
gin tropics, wherein the hunters find their
choicest treasures.
1t is like a fairy tale to talk with one
of these returned explorers. You hear of
trees 800 feet high, literally covered with
Orchids or maybe a haff-dozen species,
each growing in its own distinct zone or
latitude. Some flourish only upon the up
! permost airy boughs, others riot over the
! big crotches where the branches come to-
| gether, sHn others ring with blossom the
messy boil, running up maybe 100 feet to
| the lowest limb. Sometimes a tree is the
| fetish of the wild men round about In
| that case woe to the sacrilgiOus outland-
ers who lay hand or foot upon it, More
| than one expedition has been massacred
| for such cause. The destruction of such
! a tree scattered and dispersed one of the
! savagest native tribes.
Their titular tree stood in a sort of
| glade-it had beeen seen by several hunt
! ing parties, but none of them dared touch
| it, When they went home their accounts
| of it so wrought upon the fancy of an
English collector that he offered an almost
| fabulous sum for section of the flower
wreathed trunk. Next year the orchid
hunters found the native tribe al war,
| and taking advantage of the diversion,
| cut down the tree and sent a segment
70 tRrhpr
| trials and tribula lions, 1t was got safe
| aboard ship, and In the end was the sea-
| sons wonder of a London conservatory.
! The native worshipers coming back to
| find what havoc had been wrought at once
| decided that their god had deserted them
| in danger, fastened to make peace, and
ended by going in a mass to live at the
| other side of their island
Other than human enemies attack the
orchid hunters. One flower, especially
| beautiful and of the most exquisite frag-
rance, grows only in the tree tops, and so
| high that it is found by scent, not sight.
| Wherever it grows, it is oVerrun by ant
! swarms, red ants, not very large, but
| warlike, and with poisonous stings The
| minute tree trunk trembels beneath axe
| strokes, these ants swarm down and at
| tack the cutters most viciously often
! forcing them to suspend work A more
| curious thing is that the flowers will not
| live and bloom away from the ants.
| Boughs overrun with their roots have been
| submerged until the ant-colones were all
| drowned, then packed and shipped with
the rest. But though given everything
that the most finicky orchid could ask in
the way of light heat and moisture, they
have merely dropped and pinned through
one year to die the next Of simple mana
ton.
Then there are serpents, poison insects
and vines and herbs as poisonous, to say
| nothing of panthers, pumas, hurricans and
| tropic thunderbolts. over against them
| set the pleasures of absolute lordship, the
| wonderful sights and sounds Of the
| strangely beautiful tropic world, and be-
yond all that, the hope, ever present, ever
| Turing, of stumbling on new flower
worth many times its weight in gold.
These are the prizes in the lottery oil
| orchids-hence the necessity Of hunting
them in their season of bloom. The roots
come snugly packed in wooden boxes
Cdriously, they will not bear the least
touch of metal. The boxes are commonly
dove-tailed, and often beautiful specimens
of native joint work. Each box Is care
fully labeled. dated, and marked with the
temperature and altitude at which tn,
plants it holds were found. Then. Will
more boxes of its own sort, It IS slung on,
side Of a sleek bullock, and balanced witt
| sull other boxes. while the beast ambles