ow Egyptian lily or 'arum,' was furnished by a Zulu
who came from a great distance to visit a relative in the service of
Captain Allison. I may venture to tell secrets which will be common
property soon. A blue Calla and a scarlet have been found--both of them
on report of Kaffirs.

The story of Phalaenopsis Sanderiana is a striking instance. Its allied
species, grandiflora and amabilis, reached Europe in 1836 and 1847
respectively. Their snowy whiteness and graceful habit prepared the world
for a burst of enthusiasm when Phalaenopsis Schilleriana, the earliest of
the coloured species, was brought from the Philippines in 1860. The Duke
of Devonshire paid Messrs. Rollison a hundred guineas for the first plant
that flowered. Such a price was startling then. Reported at Manila, it set
the Spaniards talking and inquiring. Messrs. Rollison had sent an agent to
collect Phalaenopsis there, who presently reported a scarlet species! No
one he could find had seen it, but the natives spoke confidently, and he
hoped to forward a consignment without delay. But years and years passed.
The great firm of Rollison flourished, decayed, and vanished, but that
blessed consignment was never shipped.

Other collectors visited the Philippines. They also reported the wonder,
on hearsay, and every mail brought them reiterated instructions to find
and send it at any cost. Now here, now there, the pursuers hunted it to a
corner; but when they closed, it was elsewhere. Meantime the settled
islands had been explored gradually. Many fine things escaped attention,
as we know at this day; but a flower so conspicuous, so eagerly demanded
and described, could not have been missed. As years went by, the red
Phalaenopsis became a joke. Interest degenerated into mockery.

As a matter of fact, it is very improbable that the plant had ever been in
Manila, or that a white man had beheld it. For it is found only in an
islet to the west of Mindanao, the most southerly of the Philippine group.
Mindanao itself is not yet explored, much less occupied, though the
Spaniards pushed farther and farther inland year by year. Seafaring
Tagalas may have visited that islet, and seen the red Phalaenopsis. When
they heard, at Manila, how an English duke had paid some fabulous amount
for a flower of the same genus, they would naturally mention it. And so
the legend grew.

In 1881, a score of years afterwards, the conquest of Mindanao was so far
advanced that the Spanish ma