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circumstances with peculiar distinctness, as is natural. The plants were
collected on the very top of a limestone hill at Bidi, near Bau, famous
afterwards in the annals of Sarawak as the spot whence the Chinese
insurgents started to overthrow the government of Rajah Brooke. But the
gold washings had not been discovered then. Such Chinamen as dwelt in the
neighbourhood were mostly gardeners and small traders. A few sought
nuggets in holes and fissures of the limestone, and found them, too,
occasionally. Sir Hugh Low could never frame a satisfactory explanation of
the presence of gold under such conditions, but it is frequent in Borneo.
That auriferous strata should decompose, and that nuggets should be
transferred to another formation during the process, is easily
intelligible. But in many instances, as at Bau, the gold is found at a
considerable height, and no trace remains of those loftier hills from
which it must have fallen. Deposits of tin occur under just the same
circumstances in the Malay Peninsula.

The top of this little hill was a basin, much like a shallow crater,
encircled by jagged peaks as by a wall. Each of these was clothed in the
glossy leaves of Cyp. Stoneii from top to bottom, as it would be with ivy
in our latitude. So easy was orchid-collecting in those days. Sir Hugh had
but to choose the finest, and pull off as many as his servants could
carry. In the hollow of the basin other Cypripeds were growing--plants
with spotted foliage--and he has not ceased to regret leaving these
untouched, since wider knowledge inclines him to fancy that they belonged
to species not yet introduced. At one spot, however, beneath the shadow of
the little peaks, gold-seekers made a practice of camping. Ashes lay thick
there, and bits of charcoal and dry bones. Here sprang a single tuft of
Cyp. Stoneii, and in passing Sir Hugh was tempted to dig it up. He
cherishes a suspicion--which he does not attempt to justify, of
course--that this solitary plant, growing under conditions so different to
the rest, was platytaenium.

Some years afterwards, a young clerk in the service of a German firm at
Singapore, visited Sarawak on his holiday. Orchids made a standing topic
for conversation in that early time. He heard much about Mr. Day's
priceless Cypriped at the capital, and he resolved to try his luck. I may
call him Smidt for convenience; my informants are not sure of the name,
after a lapse of forty years.

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