Our first trip underground was at Front Royal and Skyline Caverns, where rock orchids grow.
Orchids grow along the way and there are perfumed wild strawberries to be picked.
Among the island's natural wonders are orchids growing in an elfin rain forest on cloud-tipped, 2,855-foot-high Mount Scenery.
The American Orchid Society was worried about the orchid poaching-case; if Laroche and the Seminoles were found innocent, it could start a run on orchids growing on public land everywhere.
As I recounted my first exhausting day of civil service to my then-girlfriend, I told her about lunch at a great Kew Gardens ale house, a midafternoon revival house movie, and orchids growing in the streets.
(Yes, Mabey's view is Anglocentric: the edge of the Milton Keynes Telephone Exchange car park, where bee orchids grow, isn't likely to resonate with American readers. But if you've gotten that far in the book, place is probably irrelevant).
In between are green hills covered with wildflowers, mandarin orange groves, nutmeg forests, tea plantations and rare orchids growing wild; all existing at peace with farms, resorts and small cities.
And then, in his vast garden at Downe, Darwin had crossbred orchids, grown passionflowers and on one occasion played a bassoon to earthworms to test their response to vibrations.
During our visit, Rynn stumbled across a decrepit board-and-batten house at the edge of the woods, with orchids growing from the roof tiles and faded murals of volcanoes on the exterior walls.
It may be the only art gallery in the world where one can see orchids growing in a room cantilevered over the main art gallery and where a glass-walled chicken house occupies a triangular space at one end.
