The lost orchid A story of Victorian plunder and obsession

English literature scholar Bilston (The Promise of the Suburbs) unspools a sprawling saga of greed, triumph, and evolution, all swirling around the hunt for an elusive orchid. British naturalist William Swainson arrived in Brazil in 1816 "animated by a passionate, chaotic, destructive urge to discover." In financial straits and short on social skills, Swainson saw this venture as a chance to make a name for himself. Among the specimens he sent back to Britain was the Cattleya labiata, a lustrous purple and crimson bloom--considered "the epitome of floral beauty"--that launched a wave of "orchidomania." A disruptive, brutal cadre of orchid hunters descended on South America, many of them "socially peripheral figures"--"rootless, working-class, ill-educated"--who would lie, steal, or do anything else it took to find specimens. Orchid retailers, meanwhile, created a rosy alternate reality in their marketing campaigns, drawing on tropes from contemporary adventure stories by authors like Rudyard Kipling to depict orchid hunters as heroes. Even as hybridization and advances in greenhouse technology meant orchid-growing was possible for British gardeners, the search for the Cattleya labiata continued. Bilston scours myriad firsthand sources to construct an edifying story of imperialism, the rise of the natural sciences (including Darwin's fascination with orchids), and some genuine tales of adventure and derring-do. Readers will be engrossed. (May)

A tale of botany and greed. Novelist and literary scholar Bilston investigates the complexities of the international orchid trade, which became so frenzied in the 19th century that it was known as orchidomania and even orchidelirium. Although many types of orchids were prized, Bilston focuses on one particular variety, brought from Brazil by a naturalist in 1818, later dubbedCattleya labiata for its purple markings and "pronounced crimson lip." Its appearance evoked "women, sexuality, desire"; its rarity made it especially coveted, central to a quest that involved explorers, naturalists, businessmen, speculators, reporters, and illustrators; ships and railways; laboratories, herbaria, and auction houses. The orchid business was not only about horticulture, although the desire for orchids spurred innovations in hybridization, "a controversial practice," Bilston notes, "with grave implications. It seemed, to many, to lead humans dangerously into the realm of the divine." Hybrids, although making orchids available to the masses, did not evoke the romance ofC. labiata. Imported orchids, wrested from their native habitat by intrepid plant hunters, were better able "to satisfy human fancies, urges, and needs--to signal wealth and power, or connoisseurship, or modernity, or attachment to the past, or scientific acumen." Bilston depicts the many obstacles facing these plant hunters, including treacherous terrain, devastating environmental damage, and political unrest. Wealthy Victorians were not the only ones coveting orchids: Darwin was fascinated by their structure, evolution, and especially their intricate process of fertilization. "I am convinced," he remarked, "that orchids have a wicked power of witchcraft." Besides Darwin, among the many naturalists who appear in Bilston's well-populated history are Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker. Drawing on abundant archival sources in the Royal Botanical Gardens, Bilston conveys in colorful detail the "chaotic urgency" of the feverish pursuit of a remarkable epiphyte. A vibrant natural history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.