New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-02-25

hagdalena 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, vet 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 are fastened to tough twigs and carefully
packed in wooden cases with a 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 board too near the boilers or exposed
to sunlight, they will all be ruined. So delicate are
they that in Colombia certain riSPlgnS 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 so great Is the uncertainty about them that they
are mostly sold by auction One plant may be worth
fifty cents, but may produce a freaksh flower (the
cause OF which IS unknown whereupon the plant IS
promptly divided and each piece may bring
thousand dollars.
On July p. 1883" Sander remarked to me- -
certain Mr.. Harvey. an attorney of LIVERPOOL. was
strolling with through this very house in which
are. when he suddenly stopped over a
plant OF Lalid aurcPS which had a ring-mark on its
pseudobulb much higher up than was usual He
bought 1t then and there for twelve dollars, and on
December l. 1888, sold it back to for one thou
sand dollars"
On another occasion large consignment of
CypyiPcdilH1 lHsigne arrived Saint Abans, and
Sander himself noticed among them one with bright
yellow flower stalk instead of the normal brown
OF the type He put il side, and when it
lowered the bloom was a burst of glorious gold
q freakish novelty of a splendid kind. Sander had
the plant cut in two, and sold one-half for FIVE
hundred and twenty five dollars at public auction
and the other half for the same to a wealthy
private collector. The latter, when his plant had
grown, divided this also, sold two pieces at five
hundred dollars each and a third section Sander
himself bought back for thirteen hundred dollars
for the purpose of hybridiziug.
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 f om the richest crimson through paler
shades 10 almost pure white, and look like gigantic
nodding moths on the slender stems-Just as the
lovely colibri orchids have assumed the shapes of
exquisite humming- birds lowering in the swe t
West Indian morning.
Some years ago the elephant moth dendrobe was