|
Many a fortune has been made, and many a life lost as
orchid hunting became the vogue during the 18th and 19th
centuries.
On the 9th of May 1826, the 6th Duke of Devonshire
employed a new head gardener, this man was become
renowned as an inventor, founder of several gardening
magazines, and a Member of Parliament; he may perhaps be
best remembered as the creator of the Great Exhibition
at Crystal Palace London in 1851 and was given a
Knighthood for his services, Joseph Paxton.
Paxton's arrival at Chatsworth house in Derbyshire is
best described in his own words.
" I left London on the Comet Coach for Chesterfield, and
arrived at Chatsworth at 4.30a.m. on the morning of the
9th May 1826. As no person was to be seen at that early
hour, I got over the greenhouse gate by the old covered
walkway, explored the grounds and looked around the
outside of the house, then I went to the kitchen
gardens, scaled the outside wall and saw the whole of
the place, set the men to work there at 6.00a.m.
returned to Chatsworth and got Thomas Welson to play the
water works to me, afterwards went to breakfast with
poor dear Mrs. Gregory and her niece.
The latter fell in love with me and I with her, and thus
completed my first mornings work at Chatsworth, before
nine o'clock". He married Sarah Brown the following
January.
He introduced over eighty different species of orchids
to Chatsworth, and eventually it became the home of one
of the most extensive collections of orchids in the
country.
Plant hunting was at its height in the nineteenth
century, and in 1835, the Duke sent John Gibson, one of
Joseph's trainees to the Far East, to Cherrapunji in the
Khasi Range of Hills under the control of Dr. Wallich,
the head of the Botanical Gardens of Callcutta.
The trip proved exceptional and he shipped back over 80
new species of orchids eventually arriving home himself
some two years later.
Both the Duke and Paxton were keen to emulate this
success with other trips, but as the Duke's finances
were rather low this seemed unlikely, However, a sum of
£1600 was raised by about twenty owners of other large
estates, and some of the nations foremost nurseries, and
another trip, this time to the Canadian Rockies and
Vancouver made sail from England on the 20th March 1838.
Wallace and Banks, both Chatsworth gardeners took part
in this adventure, one could speak French and the other
was a scholar of Latin, and both had been taught some
(Spanish ?) They were advised to "beware of bears and
women, both of which were hindrances to the placid life
of a plant collector".
Unfortunately they both were lost when their boat
capsized on the Columbia river.
Paxton was extremely upset at this tragedy, and he never
organised another expedition again.
Dendrobium lasianthera
A variety of this plant was initially described by a Mr.
J. J. Smith of New Guinea in 1932, after which it was
lost to cultivation as the 2nd World War raged across
its habitat.
Its re-discovery was as dramatic as the name of the
person involved.... Captain Neptune Blood, whose
resourcefulness and temerity can only be admired,
liberated a plant whilst in the process of escaping from
the Japanese.
Specimens of this plant could be seen for some time
growing over the Victoria amazonica pond at Kew Gardens.
|
Vanda Sanderiana
How it was discovered
 |
In 1882 one of Mr. Sanders explorers by the
name of Roebelin was despatched to the
Philippines to search for new species.
One day, as a guest of a “savage” chieftain
south east of Mindanao, he found himself
accommodated in a tree house which was perched
high in the canopy of one particularly large
tree, so as to be “well out the way of animals”.
Early in the morning whilst it was still dark he
awoke to a deep throated roaring sound and found
the tree swaying wildly, it became apparent that
an earthquake had shaken the forest, and in
particular his abode, throwing all his
companions to the ground, destroying his
makeshift ladder, and leaving him isolated in
the ruins of the tree house.
When dawn broke, he lay back, gazing forlornly
through a hole in the remnants of his roof, and
he noticed some very large flowers of a lilac
and cinnamon colouring growing in the very tree
he had chosen as a campsite, climbing up he
identified the orchid as a new species and named
it Vanda sanderiana.
|
There are many more amusing tales of orchid hunting.
For instance:- the one about the explorers who set
up camp in a remote area of the world to find one
particularly rare species; having spent several weeks
searching the area without any sign of the plant, they
decided to give up and promptly broke camp, and there,
under the tents waterproof floor destroyed beyond all
hope of recovery lay the remains of one of the plants
they had sought.
|
|
