The Strange Orchid - H G Wells

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Strange Orchid by H. G. Wells. The buying of
orchids always has in it a certain speculative flavor. You
have before you the brown shriveled lump of tissue, And
for the rest you must trust your judgment, or the auctioneer,
or your good luck. As your taste may incline. The

(00:21):
plant may be moribund or dead, or it may be
just a respectable purchase, fair value for your money, or
perhaps whether the thing has happened again and again. There
slowly unfolds before the delighted eyes of the happy purchaser,
day after day, some new variety, some novel richness, a
strange twist of the labellum, or some subtler coloration, or

(00:43):
unexpected mimicry. Pride, beauty, and profit blossom together on one
delicate green spy. And it may be even immortality. For
the new miracle of nature may stand in need of
a new specific name, And what so convenient as that
of it discoverer, John Smithea, There have been worse names.

(01:06):
It was perhaps the hope of some such happy discovery
that made Winter Wedderburn such a frequent attendant at these sales.
That hope and also may be the fact that he
had nothing else of the slightest interest to do in
the world. He was a shy, lonely rather an effectual man,
provided with just enough income to keep off the spur
of necessity, and not enough nervous energy to make him

(01:28):
seek any exacting employments. He might have collected stamps or coins,
or translated horace or bound books, or invented new species
of diatoms. But as it happened, he grew walkids and
had one ambitious little hot house. I have a fancy,
he said over his coffee, that something is going to

(01:49):
happen to me to day. He spoke as he moved,
and thought slowly. Oh, don't say that, said his housekeeper,
who was also his remote cousin. For something happening was
a euphemism that meant only one thing. To her. You
misunderstand me. I mean nothing unpleasant, though what I do

(02:10):
mean I scarcely know. To day, he continued, after a pause,
peters are going to sell a batch of plants from
the Andermans in the Indies. I shall go up and
see what they have. It may be I shall buy
something good unawares. That may be it. He passed his
cup for his second cupful of coffee. Why these are

(02:33):
the things collected by that poor young fellow you told
me of the other day, asked his cousin, as she
filled his cup. Yes, he said, and became meditative over
a piece of toast. Nothing ever, does happen to me,
he remarked, presently, beginning to think aloud. I wonder why
things enough happened to other people. There is Harvey only

(02:57):
the other week. On Monday he picked up sixpence. On Wednesday,
his chicks all had the staggers. On Friday, his cousin
came home from Australia, and on Saturday he broke his ankle.
What a whirl of excitement compared to me. I think
I would rather be without so much excitement, said his housekeeper.
It can't be good for you. I suppose it's troublesome. Still,

(03:20):
you see, nothing ever happens to me. When I was
a little boy, I never had accidents. I never fell
in love as I grew up, never married. I wonder
how it feels to have something happen to you, something
really remarkable. That orchid collector was only thirty six, twenty
years younger than myself when he died. And he had

(03:43):
been married twice and divorced once. He had had malarial
fever four times, and once he broke his thigh. He
killed him alay once, and once he was wounded by
a poisoned dart, and in the end he was killed
by jungle leeches. It must have all been very troublesome,
But then it must have been very interesting, you know,

(04:06):
except perhaps the leeches. I am sure it was not
good for him, said the lady with conviction. Perhaps not.
And then Wedderburne looked at his watch. Twenty three minutes
past eight. I am going up by the quarter to
twelve train, so that there is plenty of time. I
think I shall wear my I'll pack at jacket it

(04:27):
is quite warm enough, and my gray felt hat and
brown shoes. I suppose. He glanced out of the window
at the serene sky and sunlit garden, and then nervously
at his cousin's face. I think you had better take
an umbrella if you are going to London, she said,
in a voice that admitted of no denial. There's all
between here and the station coming back. When he returned,

(04:52):
he was in a state of mild excitement. He had
made a purchase. It was rare that he could make
up his mind quickly enough to buy, but this time
he had done so. There are a vanders, he said,
and a dendrobe, and some pallionorphics. He surveyed his purchases
lovingly as he consumed his soup. They were laid out
on the spotless tablecloth before him. Then he was telling

(05:15):
his cousin all about them as he slowly meandered through
his dinner. It was his custom to live all his
visits to London over again in the evening for her
and his own entertainment. I knew something would happen to day,
and I have bought all these, some of them, some
of them, I feel sure. Do you know that some

(05:35):
of them will be remarkable? I don't know how it is,
but I feel just as sure as if some one
had told me that some of these will turn out remarkable.
That one, he pointed to, a shriveled rhizome, was not identified.
It may be a pallionorphis, or it may not. It

(05:55):
may be a new species, or even a new genus.
And it was the last poor Batton ever collected. I
don't like the look of it, said his housekeeper, it's
such an ugly shape. To me, it scarcely seems to
have a shape. I don't like those things that stick out,
said his housekeeper. It shall be put away in a

(06:16):
pot to morrow. It looks, said the housekeeper, like a
spider shamming dead. Wedderbourne smiled and surveyed the route with
his head on one side. It is certainly not a
pretty lump of stuff, but you can never judge of
these things from their dry appearance. It may turn out
to be a very beautiful orchid. Indeed, how busy I

(06:38):
shall be to morrow. I must see to night just
exactly what to do with these things, and to morrow
I shall set to work. They found poor Batton lying
dead or dying in a mangrove swamp I forget which
he began again presently, with one of these very orchids
crushed up under his body. You have been unwell for

(06:59):
some days, with some kind of native fever, and I
suppose he fainted. These mangrove swamps are very unwholesome. Every
drop of blood they say, was taken out of him
by the jungle leeches. It may be that very plant
that cost him his life to obtain. I think none
the better of it. For that men must work, though

(07:20):
women may weep, said Wedderbourne with profound gravity. Fancy dying
away from every comfort in a nasty swamp, fancy being
ill of fever with nothing to take but chlorodyne and quinneen.
If men were left to themselves, they would live on
chlorodyne and quineen. And no one round you but horrible natives,
they say. The Andaman Islanders are most disgusting wretches. And

(07:42):
anyhow they can scarcely make good nurses, not having the
necessary training, and just for people in England to have
y kids. I don't suppose it was comfortable, but some
men seem to enjoy that kind of thing, said Wedderbourne. Anyhow,
the natives of his party were sufficiently civilized to take
care of all his collection until his colleague, who was

(08:03):
an ornithologist, came back again from the interior. Though they
could not tell the species of the orchid, and had
let it wither. And it makes these things more interesting,
it makes them disgusting. I should be afraid of some
of them, a laria clinging to them. I just think
there has been a dead body lying across that ugly thing.
I never thought of that before there, I declare, I

(08:27):
cannot eat another mouthful of dinner. I'll take them off
the table, if you like, and put them in the
window seat. I can see them just as well there.
The next few days he was indeed singularly busy in
his steamy little hot house, fussing about with charcoal, lumps
of teak, moss, and all the other mysteries of the
orchid cultivator. He considered he was having a wonderfully eventful time.

(08:51):
In the evening, he would talk about these new orchids
to his friends, and over and over again he reverted
to his expectation of something strange. Several of the vanders
and the dendrobium died under his care, but presently the
strange orchid began to show signs of life. He was
delighted and took his housekeeper right away from jam making

(09:12):
to see it at once. Directly he made the discovery.
That is a budd he said. And presently there will
be a lot of leaves there, And those little things
coming out here are aerial rootlets. They looked to me
like little white fingers poking out of the brown. I
don't like them, said his housekeeper, why not. I don't know.

(09:33):
They look like fingers trying to get at you. I
can't help my likes and dislikes. I don't know for certain,
but I don't think there are any orchids I know
that have aerial rootlets quite like that. It may be
my fancy, of course, you see. They are a little
flattened at the ends. I don't like em, said his housekeeper,
suddenly shivering and turning away. I know it's very silly

(09:56):
of me, and very sorry, particularly as you like the
thing so much. But I can't help thinking of that corpse.
But it may not be that particular plant that was
merely a guess of mine, he says. Keeper shugged her
shoulders anyhow, I don't like it, she said. Winderburn felt
a little hurt at her dislike to the plant, but
that did not prevent his talking to her about orchids generally,

(10:18):
and this orchid in particular, whenever he felt inclined. There
are such queer things about orchids, he said one day,
such possibilities of surprises, you know. Darwin studied their fertilization
and showed that the whole structure of an ordinary orchid
flower was contrived in order that moths might carry the
pollen from plant to plant. Well, it seems that there

(10:42):
are lots of orchids known, the flower of which cannot
possibly be used for fertilization in that way. Some of
the cyprepediums, for instance, there are no insects known that
can possibly fertilize them, and some of them have never
been found with seed. But how do they form new
plants and tubers? And that kind of outgrowth that is
easily explained. The puzzle is what are the flowers for?

(11:07):
Very likely, he added, my or Ki, it may be
something extraordinary in that way. If so, I shall study it.
I have often thought of making researches, as Darwin did,
but hitherto I have not found the time, or something
else has happened to prevent it. The leaves are beginning
to unfold now. I do wish you would come and
see them. But she said that the orchid house was

(11:30):
so hot it gather the headache. She had seen the
plant once again, and the aerial rootlets, which were now
some of the more than a foot long, had unfortunately
reminded her of tentacles reaching out after something, and they
got into her dreams growing after her with incredible rapidity,
so that she had settled her entire satisfaction that she
would not see that plant again, and Wedderbourne had to

(11:52):
admire its leaves alone. They were of the ordinary broad form,
and a deep glossy green, with splashes and knots of
deep red towards the base. He knew of no other
leaves quite like them. The plant was placed on a
low bench near the thermometer, and close by was a
simple arrangement by which a tap dripped on the hot

(12:13):
water pipes and kept the air steamy. And he spent
his afternoons, now with some regularity, meditating on the approaching
flowering of the strange plant. And at last the great
thing happened. Directly he entered the little glass house, he
knew that the spike had burst out. Although his great
pollionorphous low eye hid the corner where his new darling stood,

(12:35):
there was a new odor in the air, a rich,
intensely sweet scent that overpowered every other in that crowded,
steaming little greenhouse. Directly he noticed this, he hurried down
to the strange orchid, and behold the trailing green spikes bore.
Now three great splashes of blossom, from which this overpowering
sweetness proceeded. He stopped before them in an ecstasy of admiration.

(13:01):
The flowers were white, with streaks of golden orange upon
the petals. The heavy labellum was coiled into an intricate projection,
and a wonderful bluish purple mingled there with the gold.
He could see at once that the genus was altogether
a new one, and the insufferable scent, how hot the
place was. The blossom swam before his eyes. He would

(13:25):
see if the temperature was right. He made a step
towards the thermometer. Suddenly everything appeared unsteady. The bricks on
the floor were dancing up and down, then the white blossoms,
the green leaves behind them. The whole greenhouse seemed to
sweep sideways, and then in a curve upward. At half
past four, his cousin made the tea according to their

(13:47):
invariable custom, but Wedderburn did not come in for his tea.
He is worshiping that horrid orchid, she told herself, and
waited ten minutes. His watch must have stopped. I will
go and call. She went straight to the hot house
and opening the door, called his name, There was no reply.

(14:08):
She noticed that the air was very close and loaded
with an intense perfume. Then she saw something lying on
the bricks between the hot water pipes. For a minute,
perhaps she stood motionless. He was lying face upward at
the foot of the strange orchid. The tentacle like aerial
rootlets no longer swayed freely in the air, but were

(14:29):
crowded together a tangle of gray ropes, and stretched tight,
with their ends closely applied to his chin and neck
and hands. She did not understand. Then she saw from
one of the exultant tentacles upon his cheek, there trickled
a little thread of blood. With an inarticulate cry, she

(14:50):
ran towards him and tried to pull him away from
the leech like suckers. She snapped two of these tentacles,
and their sap dripped red. Then the overpowering scent of
the loss and began to make her head reel. How
they clung to him. She tore at the tough ropes,
and he and the white inflorescence swam about her. She
felt she was fainting, knew she must not. She left

(15:13):
him and hastily opened the nearest door, and after she
had panted for a moment in the fresh air, she
had a brilliant inspiration. She caught up a flower pot
and smashed in the windows at the end of the greenhouse.
Then she re entered. She tugged, now with renewed strength,
at Wedderburne's motionless body, and brought the strange orchid crashing
to the floor. It still clung with the grimace tenacity

(15:34):
to its victim. In a frenzy, she lugged it and
him into the open air. Then she thought of tearing
through the sucker rootlets one by one, and in another
minute she had released him and was dragging him away
from the horror. He was white and bleeding from a
dozen circular patches. The odd job man was coming up
the garden, amazed at the smashing of glass, and saw

(15:55):
her emerge, hauling the inanimate body with red stained hands.
For a mom he thought impossible things. Bring some water,
she cried, and her voice dispelled his fancies. When with
unnatural alacrity he returned with the water. He found her
weeping with excitement, and with Wedderbourn's head upon her knee,
wiping the blood from his face. What's the matter, said Wedderbourn,

(16:18):
opening his eyes feebly and closing them again. At once,
go and tell Annie to come out here to me,
and then go for doctor Haddon. At once, she said
to the odd jobman, so soon as he brought the water,
and added, seeing he hesitated, I will tell you all
about it when you come back. Presently, Wedderburn opened his
eyes again, and, seeing that he was troubled by the
puzzle of his position, she explained to him, you fainted

(16:41):
in the hot house and the oo kit. I will
see to that, she said. Wedderburn had lost a good
deal of blood, but beyond that he had suffered no
very great injury. They gave him brandy mixed with some
pink extracted meat, and carried him upstairs to bed. This
housekeeper told her incredible story in fragments to doctor Hadden.

(17:04):
Come to the orchid house and see, she said. The
cold outer air was blowing in through the open door,
and the sickly perfume was almost dispelled. Most of the
torn aerial rootlets lay already withered amidst a number of
dark stains upon the bricks. The stem of the inflorescence
was broken by the fall of the plant, and the
flowers were growing limp and brown at the edges of

(17:26):
the petals. The doctor stooped towards it, then saw that
one of the aerial rootlets still stirred, feebly and hesitated.
The next morning, the strange orchid still there there, black
now and putrescent. The door banged intermittently in the morning breeze,
and all the array of Wedderburn's orchids was shriveled and prostrate.

(17:48):
But Wedderburn himself was bright and garrulous upstairs. In the
Story of his Strange Adventure and of the Strange Orchid,
recording by Jessonvilles Acrington, New kre