_Pancratium Guianense_, and _Catasetum pileatum_. Kindly excuse my
answering your letters only to-day. But I have been away in the
interior, and on my return was sick, besides other business taking up my
time; I was unable to write until to-day. Now let me give you some
information concerning orchid-collecting in this colony. Six or seven
years ago, just when the gold industry was starting, very few people
ever ventured in the far interior. Boats, river-hands, and Indians could
be hired at ridiculously low prices, and travelling and bartering paid;
wages for Indians being about a shilling per day, and all found; the
same for river-hands. Captains and boatswains to pilot the boat through
the rapids up and down for sixty-four cents a day. To-day you have got
to pay sixty-four to eighty cents per day for Indians and river-hands.
Captains and boatswains, $2 the former, and $1:50 the latter per day,
and then you often cannot get them. Boat-hire used to be $8 to $10 for a
big boat for three to four months; to-day $5, $6, and $7 per day, and
all through the rapid development of the gold industry. As you can
calculate twenty-five days' river travel to get within reach of the
Savannah lands, you can reckon what the expenses must be, and then again
about five to seven days coming down the river, and a couple of days to
lay over. Then you must count two trips like this, one to bring you up,
and one to bring you down three months after, when you return with your
collection. Besides this, you run the risk of losing your boat in the
rapids either way, which happens not very unfrequently either going or
coming; and we have not only to record the loss of several boats with
goods, etc., every month, but generally to record the loss of life; only
two cases happening last month, in one case seven, in the other twelve
men losing their lives. Besides, river-hands and blacks will not go
further than the boats can travel, and nothing will induce them to go
among the Indians, being afraid of getting poisoned by Inds.
(Kaiserimas) or strangled. So you have to rely utterly on Indians, which
you often cannot get, as the district of Roraima is very poorly
inhabited, and most of the Indians died by smallpox and measles breaking
out among them four years ago, and those that survived left the
district, and you will find whole districts nearly uninhabited. About
five years ago I went up with Mr. Osmers to Roraima, but he broke down
before we reached the Savannah. He lay there for a week, and I gave him
up; he recovered, however, and dragged himself into the Savannah near
Roraima, about three days distant from it, where I left him. Here we
found and made a splendid collection of about 3000 first-class plants of
different kinds.
While I was going up to Roraima, he stayed in the Savannah, still too
sick to go further. At Roraima I collected everything except _Catt.
Lawrenceana_, which was utterly rooted out already by former collectors.
On my return to Osmers' camp, I found him more dead than alive, thrown
down by a new attack of sickness; but not alone that, I also found him
abandoned by most of our Indians, who had fled on account of the Kanaima
having killed three of their number. So Mr. Osmers--who got soon
better--and I, made up our baskets with plants, and made everything
ready. Our Indians returning partly, I sent him ahead with as many loads
as we could carry, I staying behind with the rest of baskets of plants.
Had all our Indians come back, we would have been all right, but this
not being the case I had to stay until the Indians returned and fetched
me off. After this we got back all right. This was before the sickness
broke out among the Indians.
Last year I went up with Mr. Kromer, who met me going up-river while I
was coming down. So I joined him. We got up all right to the river's
head, but here our troubles began, as we got only about eight Indians to
go on with us who had worked in the gold-diggings, and no others could
be had, the district being abandoned. We had to pay them half a dollar
a day to carry loads. So we pushed on, carrying part of our loads,
leaving the rest of our cargo behind, until we reached the Savannah,
when we had to send them back several times to get the balance of our
goods. From the time we reached the Savannah we were starving, more or
less, as we could procure only very little provisions. We hunted all
about for _Catt. Lawrenceana_, and got only about 1500 or so, it growing
only here and there. At Roraima we did not hunt at all, as the district
is utterly rubbed out by the Indians. We were about fourteen days at
Roraima and got plenty of _Utricularia Campbelliana_, _U. Humboldtii_,
and _U. montana_. Also _Zygopetalum_, _Cyp. Lindleyanum_, _Oncidium
nigratum_ (only fifty--very rare now), _Cypripedium Schomburgkianum_,
_Zygopetalum Burkeii_, and in fact, all that is to be found on and about
Roraima, except the _Cattleya Lawrenceana_. Also plenty others, as
Sobralia, Liliastrum, etc. So our collection was not a very great one;
we had the hardest trouble now through the want of Indians to carry the
loads. Besides this, the rainy weather set in and our loads suffered
badly for all the care we took of them. Besides, the Indians got
disagreeable, having to go back several times to bring the remaining
baskets. Nevertheless, we got down as far as the Curubing mountains. Up
to this time we were more or less always starving. Arrived at the
Curubing mountains, procured a scant supply of provisions, but lost
nearly all of them in a small creek, and what was saved was spoiling
under our eyes, it being then that the rainy season had fully started,
drenching us from morning to night. It took us nine days to get our
loads over the mountain, where our boat was to reach us to take us down
river. And we were for two and a half days entirely without food.
Besides the plants being damaged by stress of weather, the Indians had
opened the baskets and thrown partly the loads away, not being able to
carry the heavy soaked-through baskets over the mountains, so making us
lose the best of our plants.
Arrived at our landing we had to wait for our boat, which arrived a week
later in consequence of the river being high, and, of course, short of
provisions. Still, we got away with what we had of our loads until we
reached the first gold places kept by a friend of mine, who supplied us
with food. Thereafter we started for town. Halfway, at Kapuri falls (one
of the most dangerous), we swamped down over a rock, and so we lost some
of our things; still saved all our plants, though they lay for a few
hours under water with the boat. After this we reached town in safety.
So after coming home we found, on packing up, that we had only about 900
plants, that is, _Cattleya Lawrenceana_, of which about one-third good,
one-third medium, and one-third poor quality. This trip took us about
three and a half months, and cost over 2500 dollars. Besides, I having
poisoned my leg on a rotten stump which I run up in my foot, lay for
four months suffering terrible pain.
You will, of course, see from this that orchid-hunting is no pleasure,
as you of course know, but what I want to point out to you is that
_Cattleya Lawrenceana_ is very rare in the interior now.
The river expenses fearfully high, in fact, unreasonably high, on
account of the gold-digging. Labourers getting 64 c. to $1.00 per day,
and all found. No Indians to be got, and those that you can get at
ridiculous prices, and getting them, too, by working on places where
they build and thatch houses and clear the ground from underbush, and as
huntsmen for gold-diggers. Even if Mr. Kromer had succeeded to get 3000
or 4000 fine _Cattleya Lawrenceana_, it would have been of no value to
us, as we could not have got anybody to carry them to the river where a
boat could reach. Besides this, I also must tell you that there is a
license to be paid out here if you want to collect orchids, amounting
to $100, which Mr. Kromer had to pay, and also an export tax duty of 2
cents per piece. So that orchid collecting is made a very expensive
affair. Besides its success being very doubtful, even if a man is very
well acquainted with Indian life and has visited the Savannah reaches
year after year. We spent something over $2500 to $2900, including Mr.
Kromer's and Steigfer's passage out, on our last expedition.
If you want to get any _Lawrenceana_, you will have to send yourself,
and as I said before, the results will be very doubtful. As far as I
myself am concerned, I am interested besides my baking business, in the
gold-diggings, and shall go up to the Savannah in a few months. I can
give you first-class references if you should be willing to send an
expedition, and we could come to some arrangement; at least, you would
save the expenses of the passage of one of your collectors. I may say
that I am quite conversant with the way of packing orchids and handling
them as well for travel as shipment.
Kindly excuse, therefore, my lengthy letter and its bad writing. And if
you should be inclined to go in for an expedition, just send me a list
of what you require, and I will tell you whether the plants are found
along the route of travel and in the Savannah visited; as, for
instance, _Catt. superba_ does not grow at all in the district where
_Catt. Lawrenceana_ is to be found, but far further south.
Before closing, I beg you to let me know the prices of about twenty-five
of the best of and prettiest South American orchids, which I want for my
own collection, as _Catt. Medellii_, _Catt. Trianæ_, _Odontoglossum
crispum_, _Miltonia vexillaria_, _Catt. labiata_, &c.
I shall await your answer as soon as possible, and send you a list by
last mail of what is to be got in this colony.
We also found on our last visit something new--a very large bulbed
Oncidium, or may be Catasetum, on the top of Roraima, where we spent a
night, but got only two specimens, one of which got lost, and the other
one I left in the hands of Mr. Rodway, but so we tried our best. It
decayed, having been too seriously damaged to revive and flower, and so
enable us to see what it was, it not being in flower when found.
Awaiting your kind reply,
Yours truly,
SEYLER.
P.S.--If you should send out one of your collectors, or require any
information, I shall be glad to give it.
One of the most experienced collectors, M. Oversluys, writes from the
Rio de Yanayacca, January, 1893:--
"Here it is absolutely necessary that one goes himself into the woods
ahead of the peons, who are quite cowards to enter the woods; and not
altogether without reason, for the larger part of them get sick here,
and it is very hard to enter--nearly impenetrable and full of insects,
which make fresh-coming people to get cracked and mad. I have from the
wrist down not a place to put in a shilling piece which is not a wound,
through the very small red spider and other insects. Also my people are
the same. Of the five men I took out, two have got fever already, and
one ran back. To-morrow I expect other peons, but not a single one from
Mengobamba. It is a trouble to get men who will come into the woods, and
I cannot have more than eight or ten to work with, because when I should
not be continually behind them or ahead they do nothing. It is not a
question of money to do good here, but merely luck and the way one
treats people. The peons come out less for their salaries than for good
and plenty of food, which is very difficult to find in these scarce
times....
"The plants are here one by one, and we have got but one tree with three
plants. They are on the highest and biggest trees, and these must be
cut down with axes. Below are all shrubs, full of climbers and lianas
about a finger thick. Every step must be cut to advance, and the ground
cleared below the high trees in order to spy the branches. It is a very
difficult job. Nature has well protected this Cattleya.... Nobody can
like this kind of work."
The poor man ends abruptly, "I will write when I can--the mosquitos
don't leave me a moment."
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 2: See a letter at p. 92.]
[Footnote 3: _Vide_ "Orchids and Hybridizing," _infra_, p. 210.]
WARM ORCHIDS.
By the expression "warm" we understand that condition which is
technically known as "intermediate." It is waste of time to ask, at this
day, why a Latin combination should be employed when there is an English
monosyllable exactly equivalent; we, at least, will use our
mother-tongue. Warm orchids are those which like a minimum temperature,
while growing, of 60°; while resting, of 55°. As for the maximum, it
signifies little in the former case, but in the latter--during the
months of rest--it cannot be allowed to go beyond 60°, for any length of
time, without mischief. These conditions mean, in effect, that the house
must be warmed during nine months of the twelve in this realm of
England. "Hot" orchids demand a fire the whole year round--saving a few
very rare nights when the Briton swelters in tropical discomfort. Upon
this dry subject of temperature, however, I would add one word of
encouragement for those who are not willing to pay a heavy bill for
coke. The cool-house, in general, requires a fire, at night, until June
1. Under that condition, if it face the south, in a warm locality, very
many genera and species classed as intermediate should be so thoroughly
started before artificial heat is withdrawn that they will do
excellently, unless the season be unusual.
Warm orchids come from a sub-tropic region, or from the mountains of a
hotter climate, where their kinsfolk dwelling in the plains defy the
thermometer; just as in sub-tropic lands warm species occupy the
lowlands, while the heights furnish Odontoglossums and such lovers of a
chilly atmosphere. There are, however, some warm Odontoglossums, notable
among them _O. vexillarium_, which botanists class with the Miltonias.
This species is very fashionable, and I give it the place of honour; but
not, in my own view, for its personal merits. The name is so singularly
appropriate that one would like to hear the inventor's reasons for
transfiguring it. _Vexillum_ we know, and _vexillarius_, but
_vexillarium_ goes beyond my Latin. However, it is an intelligible word,
and those acquainted with the appearance of "regimental colours" in Old
Rome perceive its fitness at a glance. The flat bloom seems to hang
suspended from its centre, just as the _vexillum_ figures in
bas-relief--on the Arch of Antoninus, for example. To my mind the
colouring is insipid, as a rule, and the general effect stark--fashion
in orchids, as in other things, has little reference to taste. I repeat
with emphasis, _as a rule_, for some priceless specimens are no less
than astounding in their blaze of colour, the quintessence of a million
uninteresting blooms. The poorest of these plants have merit, no doubt,
for those who can accommodate giants. They grow fast and big. There are
specimens in this country a yard across, which display a hundred and
fifty or two hundred flowers open at the same time for months. A superb
show they make, rising over the pale sea-green foliage, four spikes
perhaps from a single bulb. But this is a beauty of general effect,
which must not be analyzed, as I think.
_Odontoglossum vexillarium_ is brought from Colombia. There are two
forms: the one--small, evenly red, flowering in autumn--was discovered
by Frank Klaboch, nephew to the famous Roezl, on the Dagua River, in
Antioquia. For eight years he persisted in despatching small quantities
to Europe, though every plant died; at length a safer method of
transmission was found, but simultaneously poor Klaboch himself
succumbed. It is an awful country--perhaps the wettest under the sun.
Though a favourite hunting-ground of collectors now--for Cattleyas of
value come from hence, besides this precious Odontoglot--there are still
no means of transport, saving Indians and canoes. _O. vexillarium_ would
not be thought costly if buyers knew how rare it is, how expensive to
get, and how terribly difficult to bring home. Forty thousand pieces
were despatched to Mr. Sander in one consignment--he hugged himself with
delight when three thousand proved to have some trace of vitality.
Mr. Watson, Assistant Curator at Kew, recalls an amusing instance of the
value and the mystery attached to this species so late as 1867. In that
year Professor Reichenbach described it for the first time. He tells how
a friend lent him the bloom upon a negative promise under five
heads--"First, not to show it to any one else; (2) not to speak much
about it; (3) not to take a drawing of it; (4) not to have a photograph
made; (5) not to look oftener than three times at it." By-the-bye, Mr.
Watson gives the credit of the first discovery to the late Mr. Bowman;
but I venture to believe that my account is exact--in reference to the
Antioquia variety, at least.
The other form occurs in the famous district of Frontino, about two
hundred and fifty miles due north of the first habitat, and
shows--_savants_ would add "of course"--a striking difference. In the
geographical distinctions of species will be found the key to whole
volumes of mystery that perplex us now. I once saw three Odontoglossums
ranged side by side, which even an expert would pronounce mere varieties
of the same plant if he were not familiar with them--_Od. Williamsi_,
_Od. grande_, and _Od. Schlieperianum_. The middle one everybody knows,
by sight at least, a big, stark, spread-eagle flower, gamboge yellow
mottled with red-brown, vastly effective in the mass, but individually
vulgar. On one side was _Od. Williamsi_, essentially the same in flower
and bulb and growth, but smaller; opposite stood _Od. Schlieperianum_,
only to be distinguished as smaller still. But both these latter rank as
species. They are separated from the common type, _O. grande_, by nearly
ten degrees of latitude and ten degrees of longitude, nor--we might
almost make an affidavit--do any intermediate forms exist in the space
between; and those degrees are sub-tropical, by so much more significant
than an equal distance in our zone. Instances of the same class and more
surprising are found in many genera of orchid.
The Frontino _vexillarium_ grows "cooler," has a much larger bloom,
varies in hue from purest white to deepest red, and flowers in May or
June. The most glorious of these things, however, is _O. vex.
superbum_, a plant of the greatest rarity, conspicuous for its blotch of
deep purple in the centre of the lip, and its little dot of the same on
each wing. Doubtless this is a natural hybrid betwixt the Antioquia form
and _Odontoglossum Roezlii_, which is its neighbour. The chance of
finding a bit of _superbum_ in a bundle of the ordinary kind lends
peculiar excitement to a sale of these plants. Such luck first occurred
to Mr. Bath, in Stevens' Auction Rooms. He paid half-a-crown for a very
weakly fragment, brought it round, flowered it, and received a prize for
good gardening in the shape of seventy-two pounds, cheerfully paid by
Sir Trevor Lawrence for a plant unique at that time. I am reminded of
another little story. Among a great number of _Cypripedium insigne_
received at St. Albans, and "established," Mr. Sander noted one
presently of which the flower-stalk was yellow instead of brown, as is
usual. Sharp eyes are a valuable item of the orchid-grower's
stock-in-trade, for the smallest peculiarity among such "sportive"
objects should not be neglected. Carefully he put the yellow stalk
aside--the only one among thousands, one might say myriads, since _C.
insigne_ is one of our oldest and commonest orchids, and it never
showed this phenomenon before. In due course the flower opened, and
proved to be all golden! Mr. Sander cut his plant in two, sold half for
seventy-five pounds to a favoured customer, and the other half,
publicly, for one hundred guineas. One of the purchasers has divided his
plant now and sold two bits at 100 guineas. Another piece was bought
back by Mr. Sander, who wanted it for hybridizing, at 250 guineas--not a
bad profit for the buyer, who has still two plants left. Another
instance occurs to me while I write--such legends of shrewdness worthily
rewarded fascinate a poor journalist who has the audacity to grow
orchids. Mr. Harvey, solicitor, of Liverpool, strolling through the
houses at St. Albans on July 24, 1883, remarked a plant of _Loelia
anceps_, which had the ring-mark on its pseudo-bulb much higher up than
is usual. There might be some meaning in that eccentricity, he thought,
paid two guineas for the little thing, and on December 1, 1888, sold it
back to Mr. Sander for 200l. It proved to be _L. a. Amesiana_, the
grandest form of _L. anceps_ yet discovered--rosy white, with petals
deeply splashed; thus named after F.L. Ames, an American amateur. Such
pleasing opportunities might arise for you or me any day.
The first name that arises to most people in thinking of warm orchids
is Cattleya, and naturally. The genus Odontoglossum alone has more
representatives under cultivation. Sixty species of Cattleya are grown
by amateurs who pay special attention to these plants; as for the number
of "varieties" in a single species, one boasts forty, another thirty,
several pass the round dozen. They are exclusively American, but they
flourish over all the enormous space between Mexico and the Argentine
Republic. The genus is not a favourite of my own, for somewhat of the
same reason which qualifies my regard for _O. vexillarium_. Cattleyas
are so obtrusively beautiful, they have such great flowers, which they
thrust upon the eye with such assurance of admiration! Theirs is a style
of effect--I refer to the majority--which may be called infantine; such
as an intelligent and tasteful child might conceive if he had no fine
sense of colour, and were too young to distinguish a showy from a
charming form. But I say no more.
The history of Orchids long established is uncertain, but I believe that
the very first Cattleya which appeared in Europe was _C. violacea
Loddigesi_, imported by the great firm whose name it bears, to which we
owe such a heavy debt. Two years later came _C. labiata_, of which more
must be said; then _C. Mossiæ_, from Caraccas; fourth, _C. Trianæ_ named
after Colonel Trian, of Tolima, in the United States of Colombia. Trian
well deserved immortality, for he was a native of that secluded
land--and a botanist! It is a natural supposition that his orchid must
be the commonest of weeds in its home; seeing how all Europe is stocked
with it, and America also, rash people might say there are millions in
cultivation. But it seems likely that _C. Trianæ_ was never very
frequent, and at the present time assuredly it is so scarce that
collectors are not sent after it. Probably the colonel, like many other
_savants_, was an excellent man of business, and he established "a
corner" when he saw the chance. _C. Mossiæ_ stands in the same
situation--or indeed worse; it can scarcely be found now. These
instances convey a serious warning. In seventy years we have destroyed
the native stock of two orchids, both so very free in propagating that
they have an exceptional advantage in the struggle for existence. How
long can rare species survive, when the demand strengthens and widens
year by year, while the means of communication and transport become
easier over all the world? Other instances will be mentioned in their
place.
Island species are doomed, unless, like _Loelia elegans_, they have
inaccessible crags on which to find refuge. It is only a question of
time; but we may hope that Governments will interfere before it is too
late. Already Mr. Burbidge has suggested that "some one" who takes an
interest in orchids should establish a farm, a plantation, here and
there about the world, where such plants grow naturally, and devote
himself to careful hybridization on the spot. "One might make as much,"
he writes, "by breeding orchids as by breeding cattle, and of the two,
in the long run, I should prefer the orchid farm." This scheme will be
carried out one day, not so much for the purpose of hybridization as for
plain "market-gardening;" and the sooner the better.