On a large green leaf, almost undetectable if you are not familiar with its peculiar appearance, rests a leafy stick insect. The creature marches slowly up the leaf and onto a vine to find a more suitable resting place. Perhaps calling it a stick insect is accurate from an entomological perspective but the Phyllium giganteum is really just a bunch of fleshy leafs on legs. Although it is native to Malaysia it does very well in an otherwise South American tropical rain forest enclosure. I can sit here all day and watch the alien life forms crawl, flutter and dribble by. Mind you, I had to get used to the heat and humidity. Tropical animals and plants do not survive in the cold harsh world that is Victorian London. Here within Mr. Hubbard's vivarium there exists a different world, a transplanted world from the hearts of Southern America and South East Asia. This life bubble was carefully designed and constructed to expel the sights, sounds and smells from the dilapidated streets and surrounding houses that are London. Once inside you find yourself in an exotic paradise where it is not possible to move fast, think fast or expend any more energy than is needed to enjoy nature in its purest form. England is pale and boring in comparison to what lives on the other side of the world. Plants and animals alike display an abundance of color and plants produce the most exalting fragrances.

It all began two years ago when Hubbard received a visit from a dark tall stranger who brought in a rather large old watch for repair. Rather large and it must be said: blunt, the man had what could be called sea legs, a term that describes the gait of men conditioned to navigate both the seas and the decks of ships. Men with sea legs weave slightly and can be seen to slowly wave side to side even when not walking the planks in rough weather. He was difficult to understand and spoke with a heavy German accent. My German was very poor at the time and was forced to pretend to listen, while my mentor conversed with the stranger. Hubbard carefully examined the watch and concluded that it had seen more rough handling than any watch that had come through his shop in a long time. When the watchmaker told our German client that he had never seen such a battered watch, the man started to make wild apologetic gestures. "Jah das ist leider so", was all I could make out. Hubbard promised the man to see what he could do and estimated to have an answer within a week. Whilst the old man examined the watch I escorted the German out of the workshop and into the front of the store. As I opened the front door, I realized I had lost the man behind me who was now staring intently at the wall behind the till. His eyes were fixed on a specimen of a Macrodontia cervicornis beetle in a wood and glass shadow box. The Macrodontia is a rather large insect, covered with yellow strips that run along the lower portion of its back. Any beetle from our native lands would make a run for it when confronted with this Goliath. "Mein Gott, wie ist das hier gekommen?", said the German, or at least that's what I thought he said. "I'm sorry but what do you mean?", I replied. In broken English he answered: "How come that here?" "That one has been there a long time and I'm not sure how it got here. I believe Mr. Hubbard obtained it from the inventory of an explorer who had died a while ago". The man clearly did not understand a word of what I was telling him. Hubbard stuck his head out of the workshop when he realized the man was still in the shop and I asked him about the beetle. In German my mentor explained the provenance of the insect to our client, who was now getting very excited.

What the gentlemen and the watchmaker discussed I can only reproduce from a conversation later that evening in the library over cheese and wine. Apparently the strange man had been the former assistant to Alexander von Humboldt, the famous Amazon explorer. He had joined the scientist when he was only 16 years old as an assistant and student. His name was Johan von Weitering, a native of Strasbourg. Johan found in Mr. Hubbard a kindred spirit, be it that Johan did all the traveling that Hubbard had always dreamed about. The rough German had met Von Humboldt when he was very young and had been enchanted by the strange tales with which he had returned from far away places. When von Humboldt died in 1859 in Berlin, Johan was heartbroken. Not only did he miss the old man and his tales, he realized he would never see the far away places alongside his teacher. This was not an acceptable situation and even though he could not bring von Humboldt back he swore he would see the Amazon one day. From that day he started to find ways to get to that mysterious place called a rainforest. It took him a couple of years and many disappointing arguments with his parents before he found a spot on a banana boat heading for Brazil. His parents knew they could not stop him and said farewell wondering if they would ever see him again.

Even when Johan was still in Germany and safely standing on deck of the ship that would bring him closer to his dreams, he became the blunt of a good natured joke, designed to prepare him of what was to come. One of the deck hands who had just finished unloading the last of the bananas had found a rather large banana spider that had made its way into the cargo hold. A sailor carefully placed the spider next to Johan who was leaning over the railing looking at the activities on the docks. With an almost lazy gait and in no particular rush did the spider crawl onto Johan's sleeve. There was no startle, no shouting nor screaming and Johan instead intently gazed at the exotic creature, to the disappointment of the deckhand. "Ah a Phoneutria fera", said Johan, proud in his ability to accurately identify the species. "They eat these you know, the Indians do", tried the man in one last attempt to get something out of Johan. "I wonder how you prepare one of these?", the latter added. All through the voyage to Brazil, the spider remained in Johan's cabin, thus ensuring that his possessions, or what little he had brought were safe from stealing hands.

Johan traveled across the South American continent for a large number of years, mostly in the capacity as a local guide for expeditions. He traveled back to Europe only a very few times and really only to visit his family. On the occasion that he happened to wander into our store he was preparing to embark on a voyage with Henry Morton Stanley which would be his only African expedition. He was invited to participate because of his extensive knowledge of jungle survival. Johan did not get along with Henry and sailed back to his dangerous Amazonian paradise the next year. Incidentally, Stanley's last African expedition would begin in this year of our Lord 1887 as a relief mission to aid Emin Pasha, the German-born governor of southern Sudan's Equatoria province. Emin Pasha, a convert to Islam, had been cut off from the outside world since the outbreak of a Muslim revolt six years earlier, in which the Sudanese revolted under the Mahdi against Egyptian rule. On the occasion that Johan was still favorably acquainted with Morton Stanley, he decided to prepare well for these travels and decided it was time to have his watch looked at, and thus found himself in our store gazing at a creature he had only seen in far away lands.

All this and more Hubbard related to me in the wee hours of the night. I must admit I respected and somewhat admired the explorer. Nothing seemed to frighten the German and with great gusto had he apparently told tales of head hunting Indians and insects that buried their eggs under your skin. Hubbard remained pensive in his chair for some time. The fire grew old and died and the room slowly darkened until only four candles illuminated the room. I myself had uncovered a copy of Joseph Conrad's: "Heard of Darkness" in the library, a book that seemed appropriate after all the tales of exploration and adventure. Suddenly Hubbard arose and slowly made his way over to the fireplace, which he proceeded to stoke until it was blazing the room in a fiery red glow. "Jeremy, I've made up my mind I am going to build one", said my mentor assuming I could read his mind and knew exactly what had to be constructed. "What exactly do you mean sir?", I replied politely. "A vivarium of course, an artificial enclosure for the purpose of studying and breeding exotic plants and animals", cried out Hubbard. It was not in the old man's nature to make such claims without following through with his plans and all of his actions (at least thus far) had been extremely rational. "We will need a glass blower and someone who can fashion parabolic mirrors!", continued Hubbard. "Please explain what you have in mind", I said, not completely understanding why we needed mirrors. "Mirrors Jeremy mirrors, that is the answer, that's why it will work!" It took several glasses of Port to calm my master down and settle him back in his chair.

"Very well. Jeremy, you know that I can not travel to exotic places. I am bound to this humble house for the rest of my life. But what if it were possible to re-create a small sliver of these tropical rainforests right here in our back garden? It is quite feasible to design a green house that could house the various plants. It is the animals that make things difficult. They are used to a humid and very warm climate. Heating the structure with oil would cost too much and even if that were a solution for the temperature we would still need an abundance of light for the plants. Mirrors, Jeremy, we will use parabolic mirrors of various sizes in various places that focus sunlight on a lens adding to the dismal English sun's power. The light is then distributed through glass panels of various sizes inside the enclosure. Those panels then light the green house from the inside and provide our artificial rainforest with sufficient illumination". The idea was crazy, clearly crazy, but I had come to trust my mentor's mechanical expertise and experience. If he said it could be done then it might very well be possible. Our German friend returned the next day with  insects he called Cochineal. The live animals were kept in a small box of glass and were chewing its way through cactus leafs. Johan told us how the insects produce a red fluid that is used as a dye for clothes. Hubbard was completely fascinated by this fact and asked the explorer a thousand questions in rapid German. Johan had brought the specimen as a gift and upon receiving the glass case in his hands Hubbard's eyes shone with determination that these were going to be the first animals inhabiting our future vivarium. When the watchmaker explained his plans to the explorer the man started laughing, "das is jah doch night moglich, es ist hier ganz zu kalt und zu dunkel". This apparently meant that Johan also agreed that London was simply too dark and cold for such flights of fancy, it would surely never work. Even though the German agreed with me that the whole affair was quite impossible and would be abandoned after a few weeks, he did agree to bring back plant and animal specimens. Johan left England two weeks later with a smoothly running watch, free of charge. With the watch came a large wish list of potential candidates for our vivarium.

"Such a shame Paxton died in 65, he would have seen this as a grand challenge and would have made it work as well. Our project is child's play compared to building Crystal Palace", said Hubbard, still overly excited. During the next couple of weeks we commenced by constructing an elaborate model of the glass enclosure. It was Hubbard's intention to use clock mechanics to guide the large array of mirrors along a metal beam that was shaped after the celestial path of the sun and would run over the entire enclosure in an east west direction. I must admit this was very ingenious and would result in a light source that appeared to come from the location of the sun but was always visible and always strong. Even on dark days the multitude of mirrors would catch enough focused light to heat and illuminate the green house. In total three versions of the model were constructed, each with modifications from the previous version and each more complex. Hubbard could not resist a touch of personal pride in designing these models and named them consecutively: C1, C2 and C3, after a similar pattern used by the master clock maker John Harrison when he built the famous longitude timepieces H1 through H4. All models were tested using candlelight as a source and Hubbard was not satisfied until the miniature versions could operate with only four candles. A large clock would drive the mechanics of both the mirrors, the heating apparatus and the hydration system. Using the built-in calendar mechanics, which was added in the third model, the artificial forest would go through its normal cycles of rain and sunshine. Hubbard did not want a human dependent green house, instead we would adjust the gears, levers and pulleys and let nature take its course. Now that model C3 was completed and functioning we needed an actual trial. For this we used the Cochineal insects our dromomaniac Johan had brought. I was asked to keep a diary over the next month documenting the health and activities of the South American bugs. Since the creatures ate only plants of the cacti persuasion I was forced to find some fresh samples. I am not proud to say that I made use of some of my now latent lock picking abilities when I broke into the Royal Botanical Gardens, London's oldest collection of plants and flowers. The only thing I had to go on was one shriveled spiny leaf that came with the Cochineals. To be on the safe side I collected leafs from various cacti and succulents and let Hubbard figure out which would suit the insects best.

We lost five of the twelve bugs with our experiments but ended up with a recipe for a feeding mixture that kept the insects healthy and very much alive. Our model greenhouse was now the permanent residence of seven exotic dye making insects, which promptly began to breed, which for us triggered the construction of the full scale enclosure. With the generous help of an assortment of engineers and day laborers the metal framing of the mirror installation was completed within a month. Even more generous were our neighbors Welder and the Chanderloins, of which the latter were not only weary of the construction noise but most of all curious about what was being built. Hubbard had deliberately not told them anything in an effort to let their curiosity pave the way for consent by admission, admission to wanting to find out what in the world the otherwise sensible watchmaker was building. One Saturday morning, when I myself was unfortunately working at Silber and Flemmings, Hubbard could not resist temptation anymore and awoke the clock mechanism at the heart of the gigantic contraption. With a metal creaking from the thus far inactive gears, the contraption was set in motion. It took several minutes before the carefully applied oil found its way into every nook and cranny of the device but when the machine was fully oiled it hummed a merry tune. Using the built-in calendar the main lens maneuvered itself to a point on the metal beam where it came into perfect alignment between the sun and the center of the green house. In his enthusiasm Hubbard now engaged all mirrors, turned until they pointed upward directly towards the sun, capturing that heavenly body's energy and directed it towards the focal lens. In his rush to try the machine the watchmaker had forgotten that not all mirrors needed to be active at once and in fact only a small portion was needed to run the green house. In the center of the unfinished structure a bright focused spot of sunlight now appeared, which proceeded to burn a large hole in the  ground. Had it not been for an emergency shutdown switch that would close an aperture mechanism over the lens, the entire apparatus would have gone up in flames.

Hubbard, although startled considered the test a grand success and proceeded that Monday with the installation of the water distribution systems and glass panels. All in all it took three months to finish the extension to the watchmaker's shop. On the eve of the grand opening Hubbard invited all of his neighbors for a celebration in the center of the green house. There were no plants or animals yet and we had decorated the space for festivities instead. Finally Hubbard could explain to Welder and the Chanderloins what was going to be the purpose of the strange rooms they were standing in. Welder did not comment but gave his friend a curious glance, the butchers wife instead wanted to know how dangerous these bugs exactly were, which would be arriving in a while. With great difficulty and much show of scientific force was Hubbard able to convince the woman that no harm could come to anyone outside the green house. This did not totally satisfy the woman, who told everyone present she would keep a close eye on the contents of the most dangerous looking contraption.

In the time it took Johan to return from his travels, the green house was slowly installed with various plant life. Some of the species were donated by friends from various musea, one of whom commented that he was astonished to see that Hubbard had similar plants in his green house as he had in the Royal Botanical Gardens and where did the old man exactly find these specimens?. The absent Johan received most of the blame and we heartily agreed to provide the Royal Botanical Gardens with any samples of cacti that would be brought forthwith from far away lands. In due time Johan returned, but later than we expected. What happened with him on his travels with Morton Stanley will have to be entrusted to later article. Needless to say he returned with an abundance of wildlife. Other than the large mount of plant samples there were mostly reptiles, insects and three species of birds. We had not anticipated any birds and Hubbard had to consider if the vivarium could house these animals. The birds turned out to be a minor obstacle and the real problem became the small amount of insects now that the fauna was eating most of what had been brought in. The solution lie in the separation of species, where the birds allowed in the enclosure were from a different area than the insects.

Over the last two years the alien space has become a haven of peace. Sometimes Hubbard allows visitors to visit the tiny wildlife museum, although when they are told what exactly is to be found there in the way of dangerous creatures most people leave within minutes. It is difficult to imagine that there are places on this planet where all these animals and plants exist outside the confined and carefully enclosed space of a green house. We have seen small frogs being born, insects shed their skin as well as birds go through their various display of feathers during mating season. One day I hope to visit the origin of these species, but for now our little alcove provides enough stimulation.