Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-25
A Consignment OF Orchids on the
Magdalena River.


Magdalena River.
the trouble only begins when the hunter discovers
them. He must pack and prepare them for trans
portation by coole in Assam, by long-necked llama
in the Andes by raft elephant, and contrive
to get them thousands of miles across the ocean
in such condition that at least twenty per cent.
of them will arrive with Some vitality in them And
yet ten thousand plants may be collected on some
remote Andean peak or Papuan jungle with infinite
care and consigned to Europe the freight alone
amounting to thousands of dollars, yet arrival
there may not be single orchid left alive.
When the orchids are brought in they are dried
for perhaps four weeks and then prepared for their
long journey. When entirely free from moisture,
they fastened to tough twgs and most carefully
packed in wooden cases with liberal air allowance.
These boxes are then carried by various means to
local agents who see them safely on board the
steamers
At this early stage does the great orchid gamble
begin; for if the plants have not enough air if they
placed on board too the boilers or exposed
to sunlight, they will ali be ruined. So delicate are
they that in Colombia certain criSPt0ts grow only
at one precise level. They cannot exist higher up
because of the cold and the intense heat of the val
leys would utterly kill this particular kind.
Sander probably receives two million plants year
and great is the uncertainty about them that they
are mostly sold by auction One plant may be worth
fifty cents, but may produce freaksh flower (the
cause OF winch IS UNKNOWN, WhereupOn the plant IS
promptly divided and each piece may bring
thousand dollars.
On July "a 1889 Sander remarked to me- "a
certain Mr. Harvey, attorney of Liverpool, was
strolling with me through this very house in which
are when he suddenly stopped over a
plant of Leila dncePS which had a ring mark on its
pseudobulb much higher up than was usual. He
bought it then and there for twelve dollars and on
December I, 1888, sold it back to for one thou
sand dollars
On another occasion a large consignment of
CyPriPedinm iHSigne arrived at Saint Adams, and
Sander himself noticed among them with bright
yellow fower-stak instead of the normal brown
of the type. He put it on one side, and when it
lowered the bloom was burst of glorious gold
the plant cut in two, and sold one-haf for five
hundred and twenty-five dollars at public auction
and the other half for the same sum to a wealthy
private collector. The latter, when his plant had
grown divided this also, sold two pieces at five
hundred dollars each, and third section Sander
himself bought back for thirteen hundred dollars
for the purpose of hybridizing.
Orchid enthusiasts we'll remember the rich find
of the gorgeous elephant moth dendrobe named after
Baron Schroeder The weird flowers of this variety
alternate from the richest crimson through pa1er
shades to almost pure white, and look like gigantic
nodding moths the slender stems-just as the
lovely colibri orchids have assumed the shapes of
exquisite humrning birds lowering in the SWEET
West Indian morning.
Some years ago the elephant moth dendrobe was