The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-31

think if would be exaggeration to say that axainst each of these, on an av- craze. a human life could be placed Orchids have an unfortunate trick lof crovinr not only in the most in- accessfbIe but in the most unhealthy and dangerous places--if they hadn't they would be scarcely be as coveted and costly as they are. They flour ish in the deadly swamps Of Mexico l in the heart of Brazilian forests. in tthe torrid, malarial districts of the East and West Indies, and so on-us- luaIIy where fever and pcstilence fierce animals and fiercer tribes are their nearest neighbors. Merely to approach their haunts is to carry your life in your hands: to spend weeks lauone them. as the hunters must do is to court death or to injure the health beyond recovery.
 TO illustrate the dangers these men run I may tell you that of eight hun ters who went to Mexico not long ago in quest of new species. seven lost their lives within a year, and the sur vivor came away with his health ut- Iterly ruined. Of the seven who never came back one fell into tho hands of a native tribe and was burned to death, And everywhere the same story IS toiu-ifon Aehohe eo oieiEA Leone.
 M. Hamel;n, who has pretty well ra nsacked Madagascar in search of specimens. tells one story of his ad- ventures which would be amusing if it were not for the tragedy lurking behind 1t all. Ore of his companions, a near relative of the native king. was bounced upon and killed by a wild animal. This accident was dis tressing enough in itself, but unfortu-
 nately it placed M. Hamelin in a ter rfble predtament. for-as he was
 leader of the expedition and thus held
 responsible for the death of the king g reiative--hc was bound. according to
 the native law. to do one of two |things--to be burnt alive or to marry
 the widow. of tue deceased and be a father to his family. M. Hamelin did
 not hesitate long fin his decision. He choose the latter alternative.
 If the orchid hunter had merely to face the dangers of fever and wild animals his business would be risky enough, but to these is added the fam atheism of fierce tribes to whom the orchid is often an object of veneration to tamper with which means certain death if caught One of the Wos
 beautiful of all orchids, an exquisite
 white flower of the Sobralia genus
 was actually discovered in fastnass on the mountains on an altar on which human beings had recently been sacrt- ficed.
 This was a gruesome enough place of discovery. but 1t has a parallel in the case of another equally lovely flower which was discovered wreathed around human bones exposed in a na- tive cemetery in New Guinea. SU
 firmly were some of the plants att
 tached to the bones that they could not be removed, and one was actually
 brought to England growing in the
 inside of a human skull.
 When one realizes the terrible jour-
 neys that have to be made in quest of
 orchids. and the dangers that must be
 faced, one does not wonder at the
 great cost of these expeditions; and
 many months of labor and the expen-
 allure of thousands of pounds are
 often wasted before the consignment
 reaches England. As an illustration
 of this risk, I may tell you that
 out of a large consignment once sent
 from Colombia of over 10000 plants
 only two survived the Journey, and a paltry $400 was all the return for an expenditure which must have run into thousands.
 Can you wonder. then, that such a collection as that of Baron Schroder
 at Egham or of Sir Trevor Lawrence at Dorking should have cost its owner
 between s150,000 and $200,O00 that
 $5,o00 has been offered for speci- men of the Cypripendium Faireanum the Host orchid" or that a single plant of Cypripedium Stonei should
 have been sold by Baron Schroder for S1 800?