The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-01

to resort to strategy. The story of the children lost in the woods by their parents, who were too poor to keep them, would apply here literally. A trail of bread crumbs would soon be obliterated. and one of barley corn fould soon be choked up by the strange plants that would spring up to fight for life. The broken twig or bush made by the feet of the hunter must either quickly revive and take its former position or be crowded out of existence by eager competitors.
 Panama Is a fertile field for the orchid hunter. Hundreds of rare spec imens come from her woods, forests and swamps. Nearly a thousand spe- | cies of these strange air plants thrive on the isthmus, and each season that | the hunters SCOUT the woods some new l variety turns up. A seed of any plant | dropped in one of these swamps is either smothered or it springs up and | grows nearly twice its normal size. ] Orchids of the cypripedium family ap- pear in these woods that are twin rela- tives of~~those found in our northern | woods; nut what a difference in size and brilliancy of coloring! In that climate and soil they become rare pro- ducts of an art that man, with all his | knowledge of horticulture, can but l faintiy initiate. Many an orchid hunt | CT has brought to the coast with great dificulty some rare treasure that he found blooming in the most in accessi- | ble places of the isthmus: but imagine | his disappointment upon finding that his plant was a common member of | the cypripedium family, which through the magic process of nature was ex- | banded until 1t seemed like a rare l species of some unknown order.
 But orchid hunters hunt the isthmus as nowhere else in the world. If they are often disappointed, they have the satisfaction or knowing that rare treasures may be scattered around them in the most unexpected places. Many of our choicest plants were first found in Panama, and the haunts Of her woods and swamps are far from exhaustion. There are great tracts of painless swamps that have never yet been trod by any white men, and hooks and corners of the inlands stilI retain orchid treasures that will as- tonish the world. orchid collecting is not what 1t used to be. Fabulous prices are no longer paid for these strange plants, but there is still good market for rare specimens. and the hunters, fewer tn number than form .erly, make a good living. They make periodical trips inland and along the coast. often travelling over the same ground in successive years to find an abund@nce of new plants. The ship ment of orchids from the isthmus is greater than from any other country on the globe. London Is the chief dis tributing centre and most of the rare products so there direct by steamer. The hunters usually make half a dozen inland trips season, selecting the dry part of the year for their work, and resting at Colon or Panama during the wet, rainy, unhealthy season of the year.
 The climate that is so conducive to the growth of the plants is deadly to
 men, and especially to those who are not acclimated. The average orchid hunter is a hardened wanderer of the world. accustomed to sleeping out in the woods and swamps, and passing unharmed through malariaI and fever stricken parts of the country; but the Panama hunters are cautious. They know the risks they take with the climate, and not with the wild beasts and reptiles of the tropics. When the foBs sweep up from the marshes or drift in from the sea the wise orchid hunter shuts himself in his tent and treats himself to rest and refreshment away from the blazing heat of the sun. II is death. to go forth at such times
 to disturb the dank leaves and rottinx vegetation. Beneath every layer of
 vegetable soil there turk the germs of disease. Disturb the soil anywhere
 and miasmatic germs float upward in
 great swarms. A man cannot dig him.
 self a cellor for a home in the wet sea
 son without raising up around him 1O,-
 900 little demons that will strive to | overcome him.
 The soil of Panama is literally made l or successive layers of decaying veRe-
 tation. The remarkable growth cf
 plants and vines shed their leaves and
 form a new carpet of vegetable mold
 each season. So rapidly does this &C.,
 cumulats that decomposition is always
 in high state of development. In
 the hot, moist climate this stores up
 within the soil poiIonous exhalations
 which form deadly vapors to man l One breathes them wherever he goes l When the old canal was dug by the
 French companies, the health of the | men was so affected thereby that the
 mortality became the largest on record
 for such an enterprise. Nothing that
 science could do appeared to alleviate
 the trouble. Sickness and death spread
 along the route from one side of the 1 isthmus to the other. The line of the
 canal and railroad thus bScame. a con
 tinuous burial ground, marked with
 innumerable small mounds and crosses. ] -.H- ------------------~-
 Morse Discharged From Bankruptcy.
 New York, Jan. 31.-A discharge from bankruptcy has been granted S. F.. B. Morse, one of the partners of the failed firm of Daniel J. Sully and Com pany cotton brokers. by Judge Holt in | A