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ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America
get them away from Cobán. At the moment I do not
know, as the season of heavy rainfall has settled in. I sit
here before the question. How can I begin to pack and
get them all away? I had the plants cleaned, arranged
under the trees in the shade, I will see they are given
much care and try to keep them in good condition... and
when carts go down I will see they are packed and sent
away by and by. Mules are not to be had in Cobán and
from Guatemala drivers will not come up. All transport
here is done on men’s backs” (in a letter to Sander, in
Swinson, A., 1970, op. cit., p. 102).
At the end of 1894, only three travelers remained
with Sander: L. Forget, the German William Micholitz,
and Oversluys, who was almost at the end of his career.
In April 1895 he was again in Cobán, where he had
been sent to collect once more Lycaste skinneri: “I have
already 5,000 plants and think within ten days more
I’ll have at least 8,000. There is one thing that troubles
me about your letter of the 25 th February, which I got
yesterday. That is you hope I will not take up too much
money. [...] Will you please explain to me how I should
collect up to 10,000 Lycaste in one month, before
the season is finished, with seventy-five to hundred
pounds? [...]” A few days later: “Oncidium splendidum
is getting scarce. I told my men to look out for further
spots” (letter to Sander, in Swinson, 1970: 127). After
this no further news appear from Oversluys, and what
happened to him is unknown. “Probably though, as
there is no record of his being killed or dying on the
job, he merely left Sander’s services or gave up orchid
hunting and returned home. His final letters indicate
a trend [...]: increasing expenses and the drying up of
orchid grounds” (Swinson, 1970: 127).
“Falkenberg perished at Panama...” This statement
has been repeated over and over in many orchid
histories. However, according to Frederick Sander,
who was his employer and should know better, Carl
Falkenberg (1850-1880) (Fig. 42B) died at Saint
Thomas, one of the Virgin Islands (Sander, 1880).
Born in eastern Germany, Falkenberg came in 1878 to
Sander’s nursery, asking to be sent as a plant collector
to South America. Both Sander and Roezl, who was
present, advised the young man to stay in Europe,
pointing at the extreme difficulties he would have to
encounter. But nothing changed his mind and a few
weeks later he was on his way. He was immediately
successful (Reichenbach, 1880: 232) and became soon
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famous for his eye for rare plants and for his skill in
packing them, most of which arrived in Europe in
perfect condition. His main collecting ground was
Colombia and he was probably on his way home when
he passed through Panama, in the first months of 1880.
If he died in Panama, delirious with yellow fever
(Munera, 2005), or went already ill onboard his ship,
dying shortly afterwards in Saint Thomas, is a mystery
which will probably remain unsolved. Reichenbach
named in his honor Restrepia falkenbergii, which
Falkenberg had collected in Colombia, but perhaps his
most important discovery was Vriesea falkenbergii W.
Bull, a bromeliad which grows in Panama and won a
First Class Medal at an exhibit in Kensington, a few
months before Falkenberg’s death.
We know little about another of Sander’s collectors,
Friedrich Christian Bartholomaeus (1854-1904), who
apparently collected in South America between 1882
and 1892, but also in Panama and in Mexico. From this
last country we know of his collection of Laelia anceps
var. schroederiana (Bock, 2008).
Friedrich Carl Lehmann (1850-1903) went to South
America as a collector for the firm of Hugh Low &
Co. of London. Around 1878 he settled in Popayán,
Colombia, where he held the position of consul of
Germany until his death. He made very important
discoveries of new Colombian species, especially
in the genus Masdevallia, which was his favorite. In
1883 he was described as “the most important traveler
and collector in the United States of Colombia and
neighboring territories of our time” (Anonymous,
1883: 287). Reichenbach published his Orchidaceae
F. C. Lehmannianae ecuadorenses (Reichenbach,
1878) where he described Lehmann’s collections
in Ecuador from the year 1876. At the beginning of
the 1880s he traveled to Costa Rica, Panama and
Guatemala. Although the exact dates of his journey
are not known, the first clearly dated collection from
our area is Physurus lehmannii Schltr. (Lehmann 1757,
Costa Rica), in 1882. In a short time he discovered
numerous new Central American species, described
later by Schlechter and Kränzlin: Dichaea suaveolens
Kraenzl. (Lehmann 1642, Guatemala), Maxillaria
stenostele Schltr. (Lehmann 1236, Costa Rica),
Maxillaria turialbae Schltr. (Lehmann 1098, Costa
Rica), Physurus lehmannii Schltr. (Lehmann 1757,
Costa Rica), Physurus nigrescens Schltr. (Lehmann
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.