Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-25

almost beyond price, but an enthusiastic MI
collector voyaging up the malarial and NJ
deadly Fly River in British New-Guinea II
suddenly upon glorious masses of it in IN
a sacred cemetery of the cannba1 Papuans IN
where the huge crimson floral moths crept vi
and curled strangely amid the bones and
skulls. The natives threatened the orchid
hunter with their poisoned spears fearing this dis
turbance of their ancestors remains. They were
won over, however by presents of brass wire and
calico, and still more by the performance of few
conjuring tricks and little medical attendance.
The collector finally assisted by the savages
in gathering the orchid; but they insisted on
sending with the plants a certain quaint little god
probably in order to proptiate the spirits of the
dead in they should resent this rude intrusion
This idol sold with the first consignment of
the plants at the auction rooms of Protheroe &
Morris, in Cheapside London. The specimen that
attracted most attention, however, was one growing
out of the eye-socket of human skull This was
purchased in stu as curiosity, and realized six
hundred dollars.
resident of the German Colony at Tovar, New
Granada, sent almost unique plant of the Masde-
aaIa T01areHsis to business friend in Manchester
who, when it lowered cut it up and sold fragments
for large sums. Each purchaser did the same thing
in due time with his section and in this way kind
of conventional price of five dollars a leaf was
established for the plant The Saint A1bans people
Arnold to take the next steamer for La Guayra
and Caracas. A few months later consignment of
forty thousand plants received in England
which drove the price down from five dollars leaf
to twenty-five cents
Among my collectors who have at various times
died in harness" Sander said to me, L remember
Falkenberg at Panama, K1aboch in Mexico Endres
the Rio Hacha, Wallace in Ecuador, Schroeder
in Sierra Leone on the West Coast of Africa poor
Arnold on the Orinoco, Digance in Brazil and Brown
in Madagascar. Ali these have met more or less
tragic deaths through wild beasts, savages, fever,
drowning, falls other accidents.
But the most sensational story was related
to me by the eminent orchid grower and hunter,
Leon Humblot. Some years ago Humblot, a
Frenchman, found himself dining at Tamatave in
Madagascar in company with his brother and six
fellow -countrymen who all exploring the then
httle-known country with various scientific aims.
But before the year was out Humblot was the only
survivor of them all One of his colleagues was col
lecting bugs and beetles for Cutler the naturalist
of Bloomsbury, London, and took up butterflies,
birds and orchids as kind of side-line. Unfor-
tunately day he planted a charge of small shot
into native idol, whereupon the outraged priests
soaked him in oil and burned him alive
But perhaps the most romantic story of all is that
related by Forstermann, whose name will ever be
associated with the CyPriped1nm SPtcertdnam It's
annals open in 1873, when certain Mrs Spicer
living at Wimbledon, suburb of London, sold the
Veitches well-known florists of Chelsea, a strange
lovely flower that had made its appearance in her
greenhouse for three hundred and fifty dollars.
The florists divided their specimen and sold
Continued on pdqe II