A STIFF ORCHID YARN:

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 88, 15 April 1899, Page 5 (Supplement)

A STIFF ORCHID YARN:

There died about a few years ago a' famous orchid hunter named Fosterman* But before he died he. told of a -wonderful orchid which he said existed in Brazil,, and which it had been the ambition of his life to secure. Landing on the coast of Brazil, a few degrees south of the equator, he met a native chjef, who told him of a 'village of the demon flowers' to the westward. Further questions convinced him that the 'demon flowers' were orchids of the rarest and most wonderful kind; so he decided to find this village at any; cost. He had travelled through foreats about six weeks, and was calculating that in a fortnight more he would be in the neighbourhood of the 'village of the demon flowers,' when, one afternoon, three of his forwarG guards threw up .their, arms and, with a cry, fell senseless to the ground. He had noticed a peculiar sickening odour pervading the heavy, heatedair, and quickly gave the order for the other men to advance with caution, and1 drag back the three fallen ones from the spot where they lay. They did so, and returning, reported that they had seenthrough the forest a little further on tha vast 'village of the demon flowers.' Accompanied only by his Portuguese interpreter, the orchid seeker started forward, their mouths and noses muffled as a safeguard against- the awful odour. They managed to reach the spot where the three men had been stricken down, hut could go no further. They could see, -a hundred yards ahead of them, a great mass of orchids. Trees, undergrowth, and' everything were loaded down with them.; They were of hues more brilliant than he had ever seen or dreamed of seeing. But,' like a.barrier, the wall of awful, sickening, overpowering odour rose between them. The mass of brilliant orchidn might have been a mirage painted on th» clouds, so far as reaching them was concerned. The 'village' was perhaps an acra in extent, and the two made a complete circuit of it, but everywhere rose th« awful odour. This odour was, simply th« perfume of this vast mass of orchids. It is 1 a curious fact that, though many, orchids are almost scentless, some of tha handsomest ones have a most unbearable smell-. ',- • ■—■ -v..