Orchids and their Romance.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVIII, Issue 81915, 9 January 1907, Page 4

Orchids and their Romance.

Orchid collecting has now become a regular industry ; and in that direction tho strange flower stands aUne. Orchid 1 The very word spells romanH. Take three actual happenings as illustrative of the trade in them. Not long since a collector was seized with fever in Columbia, 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 »rchids—that is, plants valued at that sum on the assumption that they would all turn out to be more or less common varieties; yet any one of them might have fetched several hundreds of pounds. During the journey to England they were pitched out at some station, with the result that when they arrived they were rotten and absolutely worthless. The consignee—the late Mr. Thomas Kochford—had another bit of ill-fortune. Ho sold a plant which had never flowered for £3O. When he saw the bloom which it produced in due course he promptly offered SGO guineas for it 1 And he did not put an e-i cessive value on it cither, for it changed hands afterwards for 1000 guineas.

Truly, buying orchids is a hazardous lotery. Large quantities of plants come to England which have never dowered, and which may not flower for some time—two or three years, may be—and yet until they do 10 nobody knows, nobody can tell, what they are worth. The outside value of ono may be only £5, or it maybe £SOO or £IOOO. A single plant has been sold by auction for £IOOO. Had it not flowered, it might havo fetched less than a sovereign. On the other hand 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 such, m one case a firm bought a lot of Cypripeiium insigne for £SO. When they bloomed—ah! a yellow Cypripedium Sandcriana, worth £75. 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 ns this can happen, it ii not surprising that there is a good deal of sheer gambling in orchids. Many people, if they told the truth, 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 some allowance If they did not turn out 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. Eussian 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 stillest 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 | Bprouta, so that it makes a very soft and flexible brush. The but end of 'fee Russian bristle may be recognised by its thickness, for no other bristle has so large a diameter. The next best variety is the Chinese, and is =ent from Tientsin; it is a black bristle, »l!6ill! 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 pot far behind. German bristles vary in length and quality; they are black, whito, and brown, and the length ranges from six inches to a mere slump of an inch or so. The white are regarded as the best of all these German varieties, and consequently [etch (he highest prices. American bristles ire 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 stiSness. 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, but if they return slowly to the original position, it will be well to examine them more closely, for this 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.

Piving for Firewood. Between diving for pearls and diving for firewood there is a wide difference, hut 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 hard 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 aS 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 naives, aided sometimes by the women and jbildren. On the Eve of Battle. Before commencing what promises to be a heavy engagement, a Japanese general issues an open letter to his troops, calling upon the men to make great sacrifices if occasion shonld demand. The following letter was written the day before the great battle of Yalu Diver:-—" 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 opportunity of 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. Your country expects of you tho accomplishment of the impossible. But if, unhappily, we are to be defeated, let it bo understood thatwe, from the regimental chief down to the last private, are to leave our lifeless bodies upon the battlefield."