The Heart of Nature; or, The Quest for Natural BeautyYounghusband, Francis Edward, Sir
Philosophy
The Heart of Nature; or, The Quest for Natural Beauty
Younghusband, Francis Edward, Sir
Himalaya Mountains -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Himalaya Mountains; Nature (Aesthetics)
The _D. densiflorum_ is equally common and grows in much the
same region. It flowers in a dense cluster on a stalk somewhat after
the fashion of a hyacinth. The sepals and petals of this beautiful
species are of a pale yellow, while the lip is of a rich orange. One of
the most charming of the Sikkim dendrobiums has the smell of
violets, and the sepals and petals are white-tipped with violet, the
stem being sometimes 2 1/2 feet long. Another noteworthy
dendrobium is the _D. pierardi,_ whose prevailing colour is a
beautiful rose or pale purple.
After the dendrobiums the coelogyne are the most worth noting. The
_ Coelogyne cristata_ is common at elevations of from 5,000 to
8,000 feet, and flowers during March and April. It has numerous
large flowers, which are pure white throughout, with the exception
of the lamellae of the lip, which are yellow. It may be seen in flower
in March in the orchid-house at Kew. In the forest it grows in such
profusion as to make the trunk of a dead tree look as if it were
covered with snow.
The _C. humilis_ is known as the Himalayan crocus. It grows like a
crocus from a pseudo-bulb at elevations from 7,000 to 8,500 feet,
and flowers during February and March. The flowers are white and
from 2 to 2 1/2 inches in diameter. The lip is speckled with purple
towards the edge.
Not so common but larger and handsomer than the dendrobiums are
the cymbidiums, of which there are sixteen different species, usually
with long grassy leaves and many-flowered drooping racemes with
large handsome flowers. A very sweet-scented species is the
_Cymbidium eburneum,_ which is common between elevations of
1,000 to 3,000 feet, and flowers during March and April. The
prevailing colour of the flowers is an ivory white, but the ridge on
the lip is a brilliant yellow. This also may be seen at Kew in March.
These are some of the commonest orchids and all now grow in
England, so that we can begin to get a footing in the forest and not
feel that it is so completely strange to us. And as we ascend higher
we shall find many more friends among the flowers. And to guide us
among the trees and flowers we fortunately have Sir Joseph Hooker,
who in his "Himalayan Journals" has described this botanist's
paradise in loving detail, so we cannot do better than follow him.
Amid the many plants he mentions we can only select a few, but
these few will at least help to give us some conception of the whole
and show the range of variation as we ascend.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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