Tales of the mysterious East enthralled English society for centuries before Victorian travellers began to make regular expeditions into India and the lands beyond. The weird and wonderful orchids and other plants that they discovered in the forests just added to the curiosity about these countries. As well as the lowland tropical rainforests, plant hunters visited the mist forests clinging to equatorial mountain slopes. Often shrouded in cloud, these extremely humid forests, especially between 800 and 2000m above sea-level, are home to a particularly diverse collection of orchids. Many live on the moss-clad tree branches whilst others thrive on the shadier damp forest floor. It is estimated that some 6000 species of orchids grow in the Asian tropics. Charles Parish was an British army chaplain based in Burma, who became a keen orchid collector when he saw the plant treasures in the forests there. One of Kew’s own botanists introduced some very fine Asian orchids, including the fabulous blue vanda (Vanda coerulea), seen here.