The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-11-07


orchid family mixtures and we would
not like to name a variety after some
friend if the blossom shows that the
plant has to be discarded as an i'm
possibility after all.
FThis one,' taking. down a particu-
larry lumpy and rooty plant, 'Ewe ex-
pect to be very fine, 1t ought to bloom
within two years now. It is five years
old. Perhaps we will get a flower next
year. He spoke in a tone as if the
news was too good TO be true.
Concerning the history of the various
species. Mr.. MacIntyre has many things
of interest to tell. What he relates of
the discovery of the dendrobium group,
for instance, is an example. This orchid,
the blossom of which is shown in the
top half tone on this page, was found
IN BorneO by a collector sent there by
Sanders, the big London importer. The
collector secured what plants he could
find and started, highly elated, back for
England. On the way the steamer
burned and the dendrobiums went up in
smoke along with everything else. He
cabled the sad intelligence to London,
only to receive an answer from Sanders
We went back and he found some
more, after a search over the length
and breadth of the Bornese Jungle. The
plants he found were in one locality,
however, and that locality was tabu,
being within the limits of a graveyard
presided over by a score of grinning
and hideous gods. The natives refused
to let him dig up the plants and he
could not bride one to go in and steal
the coveted growths. What he did
illustrates the lengths to which an Or
child collector will go when he has to
get what he wants. He stayed in the
village, became a reverential worshiper
of the grinniest idol around whose
carved wooden body chung the dendro
biums for which the collector was risk
ing his immortal soul and putting his
mortal body to great Inconvenience.
Finally he confded to the priests that
he was forced to leave for his home
across seas, but so great was his re-
gard for the idol that he feared he
could not stand the separation. Re-
ioicing in the sinner led to repentance,
the priests told him to take the idol
up by the roots and lug it to England
with him, where he could worship it in
his own back yard.
| The collector lost no time He took
! Mr.. Idol up. taking care that the or
chids went with it, and brought the
whole affair to the Sanders conserva-
tories. The dendrobiums, still growing
on the idol, brought a fancy price.
"Orchids are a fascination says
Mr.. MacIntyre. "They have sex and
species and then in addition, varieties
of both. Thus there are so many
chances. When we cross two varieties
we get a blossom that may have sew
eral thousands seeds in the pod and
among the seeds are potential blooms
of many varieties. We try them out
and keep the best. There is also Sc
much chance in buying young hybrids
l know one orchid plant bought fol-
twelve cents which sold after it haG
Powered for $250.'
In colors, the orchid blooms ru1
through all the shades of heliotropes
pinks. vellows and reds, but there ar,
no blue ones. The man who first find
blue one will have a fortune. Mr.
! MacIntyre tells of a report that caused
a great deal of excitement among or
child collectors at time when he wa
| SttIN ny bbtduN ana HbIlituit uES IL
Edinburgh, the report being that al
Edinburgh collector had finally devel
oped the long sought blue.
- went, along with the others, t,
see it, said the Moanalua expert
and was disappointed, the same a
! everyone else was. Instead Of bein:
blue, the orchid was dirty white''
, At Moaualua one Of the three orehi,
houses Is hospital. Here are put al
the sp;ndly ones. all the ones that de
velop a spleen Of any kind The nous
5 IS smaller and dryer and the chang
> from the vapor-saturated air of tn
1 other houses seems to he 81 tonic fo
5 the sick plants. One of the houses ha
= the orchids brought last year by Nj
5 Maeln5Nre from the Philippines. Thes
I varieties are all hangers and the plant
are ser ont in eocoanut huskS. TIL
g dry hu~A suits the plant TO a nfeet1