Orchids and their Romance.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81826, 20 August 1906, Page 4

Orchids and their Romance.

Orchid collecting has now become a regular industry ; and in that direction the strange flower stands alone. Orchid ! The very word spells romance. Tate three actual happenings as illustrative of the trade in them. Not long since a collector was seized with fever in Colombia, and while in a helpless condition was transported five hundred miles on the back of a camel. The same man once sent to England £IOOO worth of trchids—that is, plants valued at that sum on the assumption that thej would all turn out to be more or less common varieties; yet lay one of them might have fetched several hundreds of pounds. During the journey to England they were pitched out at some station, wi(h the result that when they arrived they were rotten and absolutely worthless. The consignee—the late Mr. Thomas Rochford—had another bit of ill-fortune. He •old a plant which had never flowered for £3O. When he saw the bloom which it produced in due oouiae he promptly offered 800 gnineu for it 1 And he did not put an excessive value on it either, for it changed hand) afterwards for 1000 guineas. Truly, buying orchids is a hazardous lctery. large quantities of plants come to England which have never flowered, and whiph may not flower for some time—two or three yean, may be—and yet until they do •o nobody knows, nobody can tell, what [hey ue worth. The outside value of one may be only £5, or it may be £SOO or £IOOO. A single plant has been sold by auction lor £IOOO. Had it not flowered, it might have fetched less than a sovereign. On the other band a little piece of Alexandra was knocked down for 3s 6d, and two years later it realised 80 guineas. Sometimes a piece of a valuable orchid gets among plants of a much commoner variety, and is unwittingly sold as rich. In one case a firm bought a lot of Cypripedium intigne for £SO. When they bloomed—ah! a yellow Cjpriprrfium SanJtriana, worth £73. And the fortunate growers actually sold it for that sum to the very people from whom they had purchased it for something less than half-a-crown. « When such things as this can happen, it is not surprising that there is a good deal of sheer gambling in orchids. Many people, if they told the troth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, would have to make an admission similar to that of a certain wealthy gentleman who once picked out dozens of unknown plants from the collection of a celebrated professional grower. In reply to the nurseryman's offer to make 9ome allowance ii they did not turn ont well, the purchaser remarked with a deprecatory wave of the hand, " Oh, that's all right. Some people gamble on horses, some on the Stock Exchange ; I gamble in orchids."

When Choosing* a Hair Brush. • The first essential of a good hair brush is that the bristles should really be bristles, not imitations, and that they should be of a good kind. Russian bristles are the best; they are obtained from the back of the wild boar. Russian bristles are very stiff, tapering in shape, about seven inches in length and either black or white. These are the longest and stiffest of all; only the but end is used for hair brushes, and the other end, known as the " flag," is employed for making painting and decorative brushes. The flag tappers very thinly, and ends in several sprout;, so that it makes a very soft and flexible brush. The but end of the Russian bristle may be recognised by its thickness, (or no other brjptle has so large a diameter. The next best variety is the Chinese, and is sent from Tientsin; it is a black bristle, abont five and a half inches in length, and less stiff than the Russian. It is not so durable as this latter, but in other respects it is not far behind. German bristles vary in length and quality; they are black, white, and brown, and the length ranges from six inches to a mere stump of an inch or so. The white are regarded as the best of all these German varieties, and consequently fetch the highest prices. American bristles are short, ranging from two and a half to three and a half inches; they are soft and flexible, and for that reason are not so well adapted for the manufacture of hairbrushes ; however, they are cheap, and are, therefore, largely used to mix with the stiffer kinds. This, by-the-way, is one of the points to be noted when buying—see if all the bristles have the same stiffness. Yet another variety is that obtained from the sea cow these bristles are hard and durable, and they are black in color. Imitation bristles in the shape of fibres arc often used. To detect the true bristle from the imitation, and also to ascertain the quality of the real article, run your finger down the centre of the brush ; if the bristles spring back quickly into the straight, upright position, they are genuine, bnt if they return slowly to the original position, it will be well to examine them more closely, for thi3 lack of resilience, or springiness, is one of the signs by which you will recognise the fibre. See that the bristles are secured to the back of the brush by wire.

Diving for Firewood. Between diving for pearls and diving for firewood there is a wide difference, but the two extremes may be met with in some of the Polynesian Islands. In Hawaii, for example, firewood is a rare commodity. The forests being distant from the sea, to save the labour of transporting timber to the. coast, the natives gather drift wood, for which in most instances they have to dive. This is due to the fact that most of the wood is from trees washed by mountain streams into the sea, where, being phenomenally bard and heavy, it sinks to the bottom. To recover this wood the natives dash into the sea, diving under the big waves, and riding on the smaller ones at the same time feeling for wood with their feet, For a huge log or trunk a rope is procured,'and the prize is dragged high and dry by the combined efforts of a number of naires, aided sometimes by the women and children.

On the Eve or Battle. Before commencing what promises to be a heavy engagement, a Japanese general issues an open letter to bis troops, calling upon the men to make great sacrifices if occasion should demand. The following letter was written tbe day before the great battle of Ytilu Bivet:—"With the break of day, tomorrow, will be given to you men an opportunity of meeting with the representatives of one of the strongest military powers of Europe. It will be given to you also to decide, once for all, whether an army of the Orient is able to entertain an army of the Occident on an equal footing. Moreover, to you will be given the supreme opportunityof your life in dealing a blow for the very existence of your homeland and for his Majesty the Emperor. ... All that the brave and loyal, all that human beings are able to do, is certainly expected of you. That is not all. Tour country expects of you the accomplishment of the impossible. But if, unhappily, we are to be defeated, let it be understood that we, from the regimental chief down to the last private, are to leave oar lifeless bodies upon the battlefield."