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

ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America
his return trip to England. His collections of antiquities
went to the British Museum.
Thomas Belt (1832-1878), English geologist and
naturalist, was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1832, and
educated in that city. As a youth he became actively
interested in natural history through the Tyneside
Naturalists Field Club. In 1852 he went to Australia
and for about eight years worked at the gold-diggings,
where he acquired a practical knowledge of ore deposits.
In 1860 he proceeded to Nova Scotia to take charge of
some gold-mines, and there met with a serious injury,
which led to his return to England. In 1861 he wrote
on the origin of mineral veins in Australia. Later on he
was engaged for about three years at Dolgelly (North
Wales), another though small gold-mining region, and
here he carefully investigated the rocks and fossils,
his observations being published in an important and
now classic memoir in the Geological Magazine for
1867. In the following year he was appointed to take
charge of some mines in Nicaragua, where he passed
four active and adventurous years (1868-1872) the
results being given in his The Naturalist in Nicaragua
(1874), a work of high merit. In this volume the author
expressed his views on the former presence of glaciers
in that country. In subsequent papers he dealt boldly and
suggestively with the phenomena of the Glacial period
in Britain and in various parts of the world. After many
further expeditions to Russia, Siberia and Colorado,
he died at Denver on the 21st of September 1878 and
was buried there. Belt arrived at Greytown, as did most
of the Europeans traveling to Nicaragua, and gives an
interesting description of the route along the San Juan
River to the Lake of Nicaragua. The mine managed
by Belt was in the region of Chontales, in the Santo
Domingo valley, where he made the acquaintance
of the well-known German botanist Dr. Seemann,
who was the manager at that time of the neighboring
Javalí mine. Seemann died at Javalí; and Belt read the
Burial Service over him, as was his custom upon the
death of any European. Although Belt’s main interests
were in geology and entomology, he made interesting
observations about orchids. “Beyond the brushwood,
which grows where the original forest has been cut
down, there are large trees covered with numerous
epiphytes — Tillandsias, orchids, ferns, and a hundred
others, that make every big tree an aerial garden”.
“Excepting near the river, the country was very thinly
115
timbered; and it was pleasant, after riding across the
open plains, exposed to the hot rays of the sun, to reach
the shady banks of the stream, by which grew many
high thick-foliaged trees, with lianas hanging from
them, and bromelias, orchids, ferns, and many other
epiphytes perched on their branches”. “This rock, on
the southern and most perpendicular side, weathers to
a whitish colour, and is called Pena Blanca, meaning
the white peak. It is visible from some points on the
savannahs. During the summer months it is, on the
northern side, covered with the flowers of a caulescent
orchid (Ornithorhynchos) that has not been found
anywhere else in the neighbourhood; and the natives,
who are very fond of flowers, inheriting the taste from
their Indian ancestors, at this time, often on Sundays
ascend the peak and bring down large quantities of the
blossoms. Its colour, when it first opens, is scarlet and
yellow”. “A ridge on the eastern side runs up to within
about 200 feet of the summit, and so far it is accessible.
Up this I climbed to the base of the brown rock, the
perpendicular cliff towering up above me; here and
there were patches of grey, where lichens clung to the
rock, and orchids, ferns, and small shrubs grew in the
clefts and on ledges. There were two fine orchids in
flower, which grew not only on the rock, but on some
stunted trees at its base...”. “Amongst the numerous
plants that do not provide houses, but attract ants to their
leaves and flower-buds by means of glands secreting a
honey-like liquid, are many epiphytal orchids, and I
think all the species of Passiflora”. “Many epiphytes
grew on the oaks, amongst which the mottled yellow
flower of an orchid hung down in spikes six feet long”
(Belt, 1874: 7, 42, 110, 153, 174, 188). “Mr. Belt is
a close, an accurate, and an intelligent observer. He
possesses the valuable faculty of wonder at whatever is
new, or strange, or beautiful in nature; and the equally
valuable habit of seeking a reason for all that he sees.
Having found or imagined one, he goes on to make
fresh observations and seeks out new facts, to see how
they accord with his supposed cause of the phenomena.
He is a man of wide experience; having travelled much
in North and South America and in Australia, as well
as in many parts of Europe — and always with his eyes
open — before visiting Nicaragua. He is a geologist
and an engineer, and knows how to overcome obstacles
whether caused by the perversity of man or the forces
of nature” (Wallace, 1874).
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.