orchids and orchidology in central america. 500 ... - lankesteriana.org

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in 1859 and died in 1904 in extreme poverty. Marr
published in 1863 a book about his journey, in which
he presents beautiful descriptions of the nature that he
encountered in the Central American countries (Marr,
1863). It is sad that his racist tendencies diminished
the value of his writings. In several parts of his book,
Marr writes about the orchids that he encountered on
his way: “On the big trees often thirty or more orchid
species had found a host, in the most bizarre forms
and sizes.” “On the riverbanks, the powerful vines
that fall into the water, the wild plantains, the green
physiognomies of the orchids!” “There I turned my
eyes to the giants of the forest, to the wildly entangled
vines, the bizarre forms of the orchids, the fabulous
fans of the wild palms…” (Marr, 1870: 166, 188, 172).
William Vincent Wells (1826-1876) formed an
association called the Honduras Mining and Trading
Company early in 1854 with James Davenport
Whelpley, and Byron Cole. Wells traveled to Honduras
through Nicaragua looking for the gold mines of
Olancho, and he wrote Explorations And Adventures
In Honduras (Wells, 1857). William V. Wells was one
of the pioneers during the gold rush in California. One
of his partners, Byron Cole, was one of the instigators
of William Walker’s invasion of Nicaragua in 1856.
In his travel journal, Wells described what where
undoubtedly orchids, near the Nicaraguan city of
Chinandega: “…parasitic plants, adorned with showy
flowers, hung from the branches, which presented
fantastic forms…”. Wells was not the first to confuse
epiphytic plants with parasites. Some months later,
already in Honduras, he writes about the “solemn
greatness of these forests: the ceibas (Ceiba pentandra),
of gigantic proportions, with the hanging gardens of
parasites on their branches ...” (Wells, 1857).
The Irishman Thomas Francis Meagher (1823-
1867) came to Costa Rica in 1858 and again in 1860.
From his travels he wrote his well-known Holidays in
Costa Rica. During an excursion to the valley of Orosi,
Meagher writes: “We rode the last part of the journey
towards the rivers with the eyes fixed on the canopy of
the trees, full of orchids ...” (Meagher, 1859).
A narrative of a journey along the Panama Railroad
by Oran (?-?) in 1859 includes the description of a
huge ceiba, the famous ‘Stephen’s tree’: “This Titan
of the tropics measured no less than five yards in
diameter at its base, including the broad plane-shaped
LANKESTERIANA
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.
roots that extended out on every side like buttresses,
and towering up without a branch for nearly a hundred
feet, supported a canopy of foliage full fifty yards in
diameter… A little reconnaissance rewarded us with
several fine specimens of orchidaceae with which the
trunks and branches of many of the trees were studded”
(Vargas, 2008: 159).
The German Karl Albert Ludwig von Seebach
(1839-1880) traveled through Central America
during the years of 1864 and 1865, studying mainly
the volcanoes of the region. In March of 1865 he
climbed the Turrialba volcano in Costa Rica. During
the ascend, he describes the tropical forest: “Vines and
epiphytic orchids hang from the trees, which, hidden
from our view, announce their presence through their
sweet perfume” (Seebach, 1892).
Frederick Boyle (1841-1883) arrived in Greytown,
Nicaragua, on November 12, 1865, having traveled
via Kingston (Jamaica) and Aspinwall (today Colón,
Panama) in the company of his friend John Gladwyn
Jebb. Boyle became years later a well-known writer
on orchid matters. However, as Boyle explains in the
preface to the book that he wrote about this journey,
his interests during this trip were different. “The main
object of the travels [...] was to examine the antiquities
of Nicaragua”. Boyle sailed on a small steamer on the
San Juan River to Granada, and from there rode to the
mining region of Chontales, where he spent some time
digging out Indian graves in search for antiquities.
Along the way to Libertad, the main village in this
region, he writes, “every branch was decked with a
fringe of orchids”; and, lying under a big tree, he saw
that “purple dendrobia boldly clung to the lianas,
parasites of a parasite” (Boyle, 1868). “Who in a volume
could tell the story of this tree and its inhabitants, could
describe the variety, the loveliness of its vegetation,
the millions of its living things...” (Boyle, 1874). In
January of 1866 Boyle had returned to Granada, from
where he explored the surroundings until the first days
of March. In March of 1866, Boyle sailed from the
port of El Realejo to Puntarenas, in Costa Rica, riding
from there to San José, the capital of the country. “The
beautiful purple orchids, for which Costa Rica is famed
[Guarianthe skinneri], hung trailing down from walls
and branches...” as Boyle noticed (Boyle, 1868). After a
few weeks in San José, he returned to Greytown along
the road of Sarapiquí. In Greytown he embarked for