Rafflesia Arnoldii, which is a yard across and weighs fifteen to twenty
pounds, or Amorphophallus Titanum, eight feet high and fifteen inches
thick. The stench of these is not less impressive than their bulk; an
artist who insisted upon sketching the latter at Kew fainted over her
work. But many of the giants are beautiful, as the Aristolochias, like a
bag of silk cretonne with mouth of velvet, wherein a lady might stow her
equipment for an informal dance--shoes, gloves, fan, handkerchief, scarf,
and, if need be, a bouquet; Bomarias, the Peruvian wonder, trailing a
scarlet tassel three feet long and thick in proportion. Others are
surprising without qualification, like Nepenthes, which dangle a water jug
at the tip of every leaf. But among orchids alone you see flowers of
familiar shape and ordinary class, which startle you by the mere
perfection of their beauty. One of these is Sobralia Kienastiana. My first
sight of it at the Temple Show is not to be forgotten. I had been
thrilling and raving over a specimen of Cattleya intermedia Parthenia,
'chaste as ice and pure as snow,' when, turning to Baron Schroeder's
exhibit, I beheld this glory of Nature. It has all the advantage of
'setting' denied to so many among the loveliest of its fellows. That
divine Parthenia must be regarded alone. It has no charm of environment.
But the Sobralia is a thicket, green and strong and pleasant to the eye,
crowned with the flowers of Paradise, snow-white, several inches broad,
but tender and dainty as the lily of the valley. Though open to the
widest, and exquisitely frilled, their petals are crumpled; you might
think fairies had been gauffering them and left the work incomplete,
surprised by dawn. Baron Schroeder and Mr. Wilson of Westbrook, Sheffield,
had the only plants in England then; M. Kienast-Zolly, Consul at Zurich,
the only plant known elsewhere--a piece cut off when he sold the bulk.
That such a marvel had a legend I did not doubt. It is, in fact, an albino
of the common Sobralia macrantha; in speaking of it, by the way, to
scientific persons, or in referring to books, the word 'macrantha' must be
introduced. The family is Central American, and examples reach this
country especially from Mexico. A variety so rare and so charming would be
found in some hardly known spot. But orchids do not live in the desert. It
would be strange if Indians had not noticed such a wonder, and if they
noticed, assuredly they would prize it. They wo