The record-union., 1899-07-14
THE PLANT HUNTERS.
Collectors From Time Of the An
cient Egyptians to Present Day.

cAcHC 6SypC1auS to Present Lay.
On the walls Of a room in the great
Temple of Karnac, at Thebes, there
are, perhaps, the earliest art records of
plants existing in the world to-day. A
series OF exquisite carvings or sculp-
lures adorn the walls, and these are
representations of foreign plants col
lected and brought home by Thothmes
Ill. on his triumphant return from a
campaign in Arabia These sculptured
records show not only in the natural
aspect of plant or tree, but leaves and
flowers, fruits and seedpots are shown
separately, as in our modern botanical
works OF to-day. w. Flinders Petrie,
the well-known Egyptian explorer and
archaeologist, has taken casts and pho
tographs of these records, and some of
these may be seen in the museum at
Cairo, in the British Museum, and else
where. These sculptured pictures, for
some were colored originally, must not
be confounded with the actual dried
specimens of Egyptian garden and wild
plants that have been found preserved
In the mummy wrappings of Ahmes l.,
Rameses II. and other great men, and
In the graves discovered at Dalschur,
Sahkara and Dier ell Bahara. These
actual flowers consisted of blue and
white lotus, pOppies, narcisSuS, grasses,
palms, clover, barley, juniper and other
plants which grew and flourished at
least two thousand years before our
Savior was born at Bethlehem! Sam
pies of these actual flowers as used in
the funeral Wreaths of Egypt four
thousand years ago may be seen in
the museum at Cairo. as well as in
the British Museum and at Kew.
Coming down to comparatively mod
ern times, vOyagers, such as Drake
and Raleigh, doubtless brought home
the useful, if not ornamental. plants,
seeds and roots from foreign lands-to-
bacco, and, above all, the. potato,
among the number. Even our Ken
tish cherry yards and orchards owed
their early beginnings to trees brought
over from the continent by Harris and
other of the royal gardeners at Hamp-
ton Court so late as the time of Henry
VIII. Then we know that TradeScant
fetched choice fruit trees from France
to Hatfield, where records of his costs
and expenses in so doing are still pre-
served. In the present century the
birth of the modern plant collecting be-
gan with such merchants and travellers
as Reeves Parks, Fortune and others,
in China, the last two having been sent
out as collectors by the Horticultural
Society. Messrs. Veitch & Son, then
of Exeter, also sent out the brothers
Thomas and William Lobb, the first
named being especially successful. Then
men like Linden. Hartweg, Gardner,
Wier and Roezl sent home the cream
of the orchids and other rare plants of
South America, and DR.. Hooker and
DR.. Thomson introduced many orchids
-Lilium, rhododendrons, ETC., from
Northern India-and were pioneers in
the good work done afterward by Par
ish, Benson, Boxa1l, Berkeley and many
others of recent years.
Just at the present time plant col
lecting, SO far as nurserymen generally
are concerned, is mainly limited to or
chids, of which enormous cargoes are
now and then secured from both the
Eastern and Western tropics. OF
these the cattleyas and odontoglossums
of the West and the phalaenopsis, dem
drobes, vandas and cypripedes of the
East seem at present the most mark
etable in large quantities, from which
fact we may observe that plants, like
other things, have their prevailing
vogue or fashion, and collectors, like
all other caterers for the public, must
study the law of supply and demand,
the markets as represented now MAIN
1y by the London auction-rooms, and
the larger nursery gardens everywhere.
Now and then a fine new or very rare
species is discovered and introduced,
and then competition ensues and prices
run high. When we come to consider
the actual pursuit of collecting itself.
we get, so to speak, on enchanted
ground-that is, of course, if one is
born a collector or plant hunter-for
above everything good collector is so
far like the poets are said to be, l. e.,
born and not made. OF course, If
man has the true hunters blood in
him. and also acquires experience in
the best new and rare plant nurseries
and botanical gardens then you may
expect good, even if not the best. re-
suits. Above all, collector must be
a man of many parts; he must, like
the proverbial cat, always drop on his
feet, and nothing must daunt or deter
his ardor-he must be as persistent as
bloodhound on the trail-Amateur
Gardening.