The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-07
ORCHID HUNTERS ADVENTURES.
In Pursuit of a Rare Variety in Re-

In Pursuit of a Rare Variety in Re-
 mote Jungle of Manipur. India.
 There never was a more enthusiastic
 hunter of orchids than Ignatius Fors- | termann, who stuck to his chosen call | ing as long as his vigorous manhood
 remained, visiting many out-of-the-way | corners of the world in pursuit of the strange plants, but finally settled down 1 near the Newtown station, on the Long | Island railroad. and remained there | cultivating and selling orchids till the day of his death, three or four years ago. Forstermann was native of Co.,
 blentz, on the Rhine, the son of a stur- dy peasant couple. Being of a delicate
 constitution, the boy was sent to Ger
 man school of gardening for three years,
 and after that he was made an employe
 In great garden now belonging to the
 Duke of Hesse. There he first became
 infatuated with orchids Later, at the
 botanical gardens in Basle Switz., he
 met an inspector who had visited al-
 most inaccessible parts of South Ameri-
 ca searching for new varieties of the
 curious. flowers. His tales of adventure
 in the tropics fired the youths imagina-
 ton and made him long to be an orchid
 hunter.
 Forstermann used to tell how his op-
 portunity came early in the sos, while
 he was in London as an employe of one
 of the largest British houses which deal
 in orchids. A man came into the offices of the concern with an orchid of unusu- al appearance. It had been sent to him by brother then living In India, and he wanted to know whether it was a new variety or not. Examination by experts showed that it was and the plant was sold few days later for two hundred guineas, or about S1,250. Natu- rally Forstermann's employers were anxious to get hold of more orchids of the same variety, if possible, and, natu rally, he jumped at their offer to send him to India in search of them. He knew when starting out that his journey might be wild goose chase, since the only information that could be given to help him in his search was that the or enid was discovered by a tea planter of a certain name living somewhere in In- da, and that it probably grew in the of his plantation.
 Forstermann's first rebuff was re- ceived at Calcutta. There he applied to the post-offce authorities for the ad- dress of the tea planter, but they said they had no time to hunt up the infor- nation he desired. From the post -off1ce he went out into the city, and for days wandered almost aimlessly up and 1 down the streets, trying to think out plan of action. He dared not go dl- | rectly at his task, since if 1t had been known that he was seeking rare or ,hid other professionals in his line, nore experienced than himself, would Iave dogged his footsteps from morn ng till night, and likely would have ound the plant as soon as himself.
 On the third day his eye was caught y sign in a window It read. "Tea Planters Gazette" He had seen the ign before, but that day it flashed into is head that possibly he might get the ddress he wanted there. Up the stairs o the office he bounded, two steps at nce barely bethinking himself in time 0 moderate his pace so as not to seem Q eager The clerk behind the counter vas polite, and when asked for the ad- ress got out a big book and ran his nger down long lstof names. There are two planters of the name $ ou ask about" he said; "one has a ] lantation at Slchar and the others is ear Sylhet." ; This was puzzler. The two places ( 'ere two hundred miles or more apart nd there was no way of finding out 'hich was the right one but by a per I,o tn | lace the entire trip would be wasted, ; since. while he was travelling nd searching the agent of the man { 'ho had left the orchid in London might o to the other place, gather a lot of the are plants and ship enough of them 3 England to glut the market. How ; yer the risk had to be taken, and i