Charles Samuel Pollock Parish ( 1822 - 1897 )

The lure of the orchid began to move increasingly southeastward in the 1850s. The orchids of India and Nepal had already fired the imaginations of English growers ,but beyond those reaches little was known of other southeastern types. By coincidence a missionary in Burma became interested in native orchids as an adjunct to beautifying his home and mission . This hobby pursuit opened the door to yet another untapped mine of orchid treasres .

Charles Samuel Pollock Parish was born in Calcutta , India , on 26 January 1822. Educated at Oxford University , he took his B.A. in 1841. Eleven years later he was sent to Moulmein ,Burma , in his newly appointed position as Indian Chaplain . Almost immediately , collecting orchids became a passion with him , though this pursit indirectly stemmed from his interest in mosses . Parish related that Porpax parishii " was the first orchid I had ever gathered ! When searching for mosses, I found this (to me then) singular plant, leafless and flowerless , and knew not that it was an Orchid . The naming of it by the great Lindley incited me to pay attention to the Order ." Besides growing orchids in his garden , Parish thereafter sent plants to England , where Joseph Hooker and John Lindley received them gladly .

Rev. Parish wrote in later years that :

Cymbidium parishii was one of my earliest discoveries , having been found by me during my long journey in the distant jungles in 1859 . On the same occasion I discovered Dendrobium crassinode and several other good things ,but I was so bewildered then at the number of novelties of all kinds that I did not know what to choose . As I could not carry everything , I gathered then a fair quantity of Cymbidium parishii and Dendrobium crassinode; I gathered then a fair quantity of Cymbidium parishii and Dendrobium crassinode ; I sent them , with many other valuable things , to Mr. Low , the father , with one box meant for kew ; but all (six large cases full !) were sunk in the Ganges. It was a cruel disappointment , as it was my first collection , a most valuable one , many of the plants I have never met again .

Near his home that same year he discovered Paphiopedilum concolor as well as Paphiopedilum parishii .

Lindley and Hooker spoke with great praise in behalf of Parish , forming high opinion of the plants he continued to send them with his own sketched . Meanwhile ,Burmese orchids mysteriously began appearing in the sales rooms of England , Phalaenopsis lowii and numerous beautiful dendrobiums among them . the source of these introductions long remained undisclosed . Finally , it became known that the plants were sent by Parish and Colonel Robson Benson ,an officer in the British forces in India .

During the 1860s great number of Parish's plants were figured in the Botanical Magazine , including Dendrobium parishii. James Bateman commented therein :

A glance at the recent volumes of the Botanical Magazine will show the large number of new and beautiful orchids that have been secured to the collections of this country through the zeal and enterprise of Mr. Parish ,whose eye seems to be ever ready to detect any new forms amid the striking vegetation of the rich country that is now the scence of his missionary labours .

A host of new plant discoveries was made by Parish between 1862 and 1867 , including Cymbidium tigrinum ,found in the Tenasserim Mountains . In addition to the phalaenopsis and dendrobium mentioned ,species of Coelogyne ,Habenaria ,and Vanda are named in commemoration of Parish , as well as Parishia , a nonorchidaceous genus for Malaya .

Contributing to Mason's Burma (2: 148-202), Parish enumerated 350 of the indigenous orchids . Remarking on this large number of orchids from so small an area , he wrote in the same edition:

My opportunities of observation were almost unrivalled .Fixed at one station for upwards of twenty years ,and having some 150 species growing in my garden ,fresh supplies being continually brought in , it was my daily delight to watch their growth ,and hardly a day passed on which I did not either draw or examine microscopically some one orchid or another .

Reports of Parish's observation appeared in other periodicals such as the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal .

In 1871 Parish's observations appeared in other periodicals such as the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal .

In 1871 Parish returned to England for a visit , bringing with him his large collection of analytical sketches and watercolor drawings , which he presented to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. An account of this endowment was given by Reichenbach in the Transactions of the Linnean Society .

In 1878 Parish retired from his mission work and returned again to England and Somerset , continuing his interest in orchids and botany in general . He died quietly in his sleep , at his home at Roughmoor, Somerset , on 18 October 1897, at the age of seventy -five.

References

Curtis' Botanical Magazine . 1931. Dedications and Portraits 1827-1927.

Nelmes ,Ernest, and Cuthbertson , Wm., comps. London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd.

Journal of Botany. 1897. Book-Notes , News,etc. 35 : 464.

Kline , Mary C. 1962. The Rev. Charles Samuel Parish . Amer . Orch. Soc . Bull. 31,no.3.

Orchid Review ,The . 1897. Obituary .Vol.5,no. 58.