Would you pay $100,000 for an orchid?

In 1818 an orchid was sent from Brazil to Britain. The specimen, later christened Cattleya labiata, had been collected by William Swainson, an English naturalist keen to make a name for himself in an age when natural history was newly fashionable. When eventually induced to bloom, revealing crimson, lip-shaped petals, C. labiata was agreed to be among the most splendid of its kind. It “must strike with admiration every beholder who is not actually insensible of the charms of nature”, one keen fan wrote.