Part 1 (1/2)
The Plant Hunters
by Mayne Reid
CHAPTER ONE
THE PLANT-HUNTER
”A Plant-Hunter! what is that?
”We have heard of fox-hunters, of deer-hunters, of bear and buffalo-hunters, of lion-hunters, and of 'boy-hunters;' of a plant-hunter never
”Stay! Truffles are plants Dogs are used in finding them; and the collector of these is termed a truffle-hunter Perhaps this is what the Captainvery different froer His occupation is of a nobler kind than contributing ourmand To his labours the whole civilised world is indebted--yourself aratitude for arden you are indebted to hieous dahlia that nods over the flower-bed--the brilliant peony that sparkles on the parterre-- the lovely careenhouse,--the kalmias, the azaleas, the rhododendrons, the starry jessaerania, and a thousand other floral beauties, are, one and all of theland--cold cloudy England--has becohter in bloom than those that blossomed in the farace to our English landscape,--ladden the prospect froe-s, are the produce of his industry But for hiarnish your table at dinner and dessert, you ht never have reached your lips A good word, then, for the plant-hunter!
And now, boy reader, in all seriousness I shall tell you what I mean by a ”plant-hunter” I mean a person who devotes all his time and labour to the collection of rare plants and flowers--in short, one who makes this occupation his _profession_ These are not sie they must needs possess--but, rather, what has hitherto been terh these h in the eyes of the scientific world--though the closet-syste, I dare boldly affirm that the humblest of their class has done reat Linnaeus himself
They are, indeed, the botanists of true value, who have not only ietation, but have brought its rarest forhtest flowers under our very noses, as it were--flowers, that but for the their sweetness on the desert air”
My young reader, do not iine that I have any desire to underrate theof the sort I around a class of men whose services in ed--I mean the botanical collectors--the _plant-hunters_
It is just possible that you never drea, and yet from the earliest historic times there have been men who followed it There were plant-collectors in the days of Pliny, who furnished the gardens of Herculaneum and Pompeii; there were plant-collectors employed by the wealthy mandarins of China, by the royal sybarites of Delhi and Cashmere, at a time when our semi-barbarous ancestors were contented with the wild flowers of their native woods
But even in England the calling of the plant-hunter is far froin It dates as early as the discovery and colonisation of America; and the names of the Tradescants, the Bartra the most respected in the botanical world To thenolias, our maples, our robinias, our western _platanus_, and a host of other noble trees, that already share the forest, and contest with our native species, the right to our soil
At no period of the world has the nureat as at present Will you believe it, hundreds ofthem may be found representatives of all the nations of Europe--Gerreatest number; but there are Swedes and Russ as well, Danes and Britons, Frenchuese, Swiss and Italians Theytheir avocation in every corner of the world--through the sequestered passes of the Rocky Mountains, upon the pathless prairies, in the deep barrancas of the Andes, aled forests of the Alacier valleys of the Hie scenes, where the untrodden and the unknown invite to fresh discoveries in the world of vegetation Wandering on with eager eyes, scanning with scrutiny every leaf and flower--toiling over hill and dale--cli the dank h thorny thicket, through ”chapparal” and ”jungle”--sleeping in the open air--hungering, thirsting, risking life amidst wild beasts, and wilder men,--such are a few of the trials that chequer the life of the plant-hunter
Froo such hardshi+ps and dangers?
The motives are various Some are lured on by the pure love of botanical science; others by a fondness for travel Still others are the _eh-born botanical aardens and arboretums; and yet another few--perchance of huh not less zealous in their well-beloved calling,-- are collectors for the ”nursery”
Yes; you will no doubt be astonished to hear that the plain ”seedsman”
at the town end, who sells you your roots and bulbs and seedlings, keeps in his pay a staff of plant-hunters--lobe in search of new plants and flowers, that ladden the eyes of the lovers of floral beauty
Need I say that the lives of such ht with adventures and hair-breadth perils? You shall judge for yourself when I have narrated to you a few chapters fro Bavarian botanist,--Karl Linden--while engaged in a _plant-hunting_ expedition to the Alps of India--the stupendous mountains of the Himalaya
CHAPTER TWO
KARL LINDEN
Karl Linden was a native of Upper Bavaria, near the Tyrolese frontier