One of my books refers to the early 1900s, when SE Asia was opening
up as a new source of exotic & previously unknown orchids - and there
were many wealthy collectors of anything unusual in Europe. Showed
pics of ships' holds full of epiphytes, ripped from trees. Probably
wouldn't survive the voyage back, & if they did, would die in the
European environment, where prospective buyers hadn't the faintest
idea of the plants' normal environment.

Dave Gillingham
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