nurbook
The Lost Orchid: A Story of Victorian Plunder and Obsession
Author(s): Sarah Bilston (Author)
- Publisher: Harvard University Press
- Publication Date: May 6, 2025
- Language: English
- Print length: 400 pages
- ISBN-10: 0674272609
- ISBN-13: 9780674272606
Book Description
A New Yorker Best Book of the Year
An Economist Best Book of the Year
The forgotten story of a decades-long international quest for a rare and coveted orchid, chronicling the botanists, plant hunters, and collectors who relentlessly pursued it at great human and environmental cost.
In 1818, a curious root arrived in a small English village, tucked―seemingly by accident―in a packing case mailed from Brazil. The amateur botanist who cultivated it soon realized that he had something remarkable on his hands: an exceptionally rare orchid never before seen on British shores. It arrived just as “orchid mania” was sweeping across Europe and North America, driving a vast plant trade that catered to wealthy private patrons as well as the fast-growing middle classes eager to display exotic flowers at home. Dubbed Cattleya labiata, the striking purple-and-crimson bloom quickly became one of the most coveted flowers on both continents.
As tales of the flower’s beauty spread through scientific journals and the popular press, orchid dealers and enthusiasts initiated a massive search to recover it in its natural habitat. Sarah Bilston illuminates the story of this international quest, introducing the collectors and nurserymen who funded expeditions, the working-class plant hunters who set out to find the flower, the South American laborers and specialists with whom they contracted, the botanists who used the latest science to study orchids in all their varieties, and the writers and artists who established the near-mythic status of the “lost orchid.” The dark side of this global frenzy was the social and environmental harm it wrought, damaging fragile ecologies on which both humans and plants depended.
Following the human ambitions and dramas that drove an international obsession, The Lost Orchid is a story of consumer desire, scientific curiosity, and the devastating power of colonial overreach.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Draws on an extensive body of letters, newspapers, and novels to demonstrate how one rare flower could come ‘to signal wealth and power, or connoisseurship, or modernity, or attachment to the past, or scientific acumen’―sometimes all at once.”
―New Yorker“Bilston uses the orchid to unfurl a greater story about progress and the planet…horticulturists and economists alike will enjoy her tale of Cattleya labiata and its multifarious meanings.”
―The Economist“What really interests Bilston is how orchidomania became a vehicle for the kinds of narratives that imperialists used to promote their aims…perhaps her greatest contribution to the history of orchidomania is in showing how each fresh development was mirrored in popular fiction.”
―Nicola Shulman, Literary Review“A finely researched account of a fascinating period in scientific history that will appeal to lovers of orchids, exploration, and Victoriana.”
―Danielle Clode, Australian Book Review“Bilston, who is a most persuasive writer…tells the tale of ‘orchidomania’ or ‘orchidelirium,’ the first obviously the more elegant word to describe the passion for the plant that was raging around the world from about the early 19th century to the beginning of the First World War…excellent.”
―Tunku Varadarajan, Washington Free Beacon“Sarah Bilston’s book is about the 1891 expedition that set out to find a near-mythical example, a purple and crimson flower –
Cattleya labiata – that grew deep in the Brazilian rainforest. Her cast includes the Swedish plant hunter Claes Ericsson, the nurseryman Frederick Sander who sponsored him, and Erich Bungeroth, a rival in the quest. The story sometimes has the trappings of a chase thriller but Bilston is assiduous in revealing that behind the expedition lay a host of other forces: from colonialism, commerce and communication, and the hold plants had on the imagination of writers, all the way to Darwin and the scientific revolution.”―Michael Prodger, New Statesman“Bilston studies the orchidomania of late-nineteenth-century Britain, during which hothouses spilled over with blooms, hundreds of thousands of them, in febrile purples, ambers, and scarlets…The flowers’ rarity and fickle temperament―even shielded from the dour English weather by greenhouses, they survived only under the greenest of thumbs―made them precious commodities. Like bottles of champagne recovered from old shipwrecks, they invited connoisseurship.””
―Dan Piepenbring, Harper’s Magazine“One of the best books I have read for a very long time…Bilston weaves social history, biography and botany together to explain how the mystery became of international significance among botanists and nurserymen. Also, her prose is magnificent: so clear, so well measured and so pleasing to read.”
―Charles Quest-Ritson, Country Life“Explores the broad sweep of 19th-century orchid mania…Botany, class distinctions, the horticultural businesses, the technicalities of botanical nomenclature and methods, and perhaps most of all the exploitation of local people and the landscape are a part of the cultural history surrounding this plant and its relatives.”
―D. H. Pfister, Choice“Unspools a sprawling saga of greed, triumph, and evolution, all swirling around the hunt for an elusive orchid…Readers will be engrossed.”
―Publishers Weekly“A tale of botany and greed…conveys in colorful detail the ‘chaotic urgency’ of the feverish pursuit of a remarkable epiphyte. A vibrant natural history.”
―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“Enthralling, authoritative, and discerning,
The Lost Orchid is a brilliant account of the Victorian obsession over an exotic flower and the environmental destruction that resulted from Western imperialism.”―Kristen Rabe, Foreword Reviews“Shows how the nineteenth century scientific and commercial preoccupation with a single flower―or rather, a particular plant species―can be used as a lens for examining broader themes of science and empire…a highly engaging and accessible book which will certainly appeal to both academic and popular history readers alike.”
―Tim Chamberlain, H-Net Reviews“Does not disappoint…The Lost Orchid contains many stories about plants, people, and the circumstances that bring the two together, yet the most compelling one it shares discloses how individuals across all levels of Victorian society participated in the phenomenon of orchidomania. Bilston navigates the complexities of this narrative with both aplomb and sensitivity, never losing sight of the ecopolitical stakes behind orchid collecting while at the same time expanding our knowledge of the individuals who practiced it.”
―Lindsay Wells, Nineteenth-Century Contexts“Students of botanical history and lovers of orchids will enjoy this book, densely packed with facts and annotated fully…a wealth of interesting botanical history is explored.”
―Karla Dalley, Connecticut Horticultural Society Newsletter“Deeply and meticulously reported,
The Lost Orchid thrillingly illuminates the strange and marvelous world of Victorian orchid collecting, complete with its deceits, vanities, achievements, and obsessions. Bilston is the perfect guide through this eccentric piece of history, placing it firmly in the larger context of cultural and social conquest.”―Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief“A riveting history of Victorian orchid mania and its consequences. Bilston deftly illuminates not only the stories and myths that drove an ever-growing trade in orchids, but also the enduring human and environmental costs of this obsession.”
―Kirk Wallace Johnson, author of The Feather Thief“
The Lost Orchid is about much more than a mysterious flower. It is an extraordinary tour de force of fine-grained history, deftly tracing the contours of trade, imperialism, greed, scientific argument, and exploitation of both people and nature itself. It is an almost perfect demonstration of what a work in science and literature should be: careful, precise, fully responsible and original, and itself quite a literary accomplishment. Bilston’s scholarship is profound and extraordinarily far-reaching. Her detailed and humane discussion of key figures in this history, moreover, resonates with significance amid the crises of our own times.”―George Levine, author of Darwin Loves You: Natural Selection and the Re-enchantment of the World“This book is an enticing portal to another world―one both intimately familiar and strangely foreign―filled with unbridled obsessions, maniacal exploitation, mythical quests, mundane struggles, and larger-than-life characters.”
―Edward D. Melillo, author of The Butterfly Effect: Insects and the Making of the Modern WorldAbout the Author
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