138 A C D F LANKESTERIANA Figure 45. A — San Pedro Sula at the time of Thieme’s collections. In Escoto, 2002: 28. B — John Donnell Smith (1829-1928). Courtesy of Jaime García. C — The city of Guatemala. In Boddam-Whetham, 1877, frontispiece. D — United Fruit Co. Lodge <strong>and</strong> Station <strong>in</strong> Port Limón, ca. 1915. Photograph by Manuel Gómez Miralles <strong>in</strong> Leiva Coto, 2004: 83. E — Rudolf Schlechter (1872-1925), <strong>in</strong> the Herbarium of the Botanical Museum <strong>in</strong>Berl<strong>in</strong>, 1909. F — The Herbarium <strong>in</strong> Berl<strong>in</strong>, after its destruction <strong>in</strong> March, 1943. (E—F, Courtesy of Dr. N. Kilian, Archives BGBM Berl<strong>in</strong>-Dahlem). LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009. B E
ossenbaCh — Orchids <strong>and</strong> <strong>orchidology</strong> <strong>in</strong> Central America [...] The branches which arched the deep stream on our right were loaded with <strong>orchids</strong> <strong>and</strong> parasites, over whose blossoms a few humm<strong>in</strong>g birds hovered as if <strong>in</strong> defiance of the ra<strong>in</strong>...” (Fig. 45C). After Cobán, he crosses the mounta<strong>in</strong>s <strong>and</strong> beg<strong>in</strong>s the descend to the Atlantic regions. “The scenery is splendidly tropical; v<strong>in</strong>es <strong>and</strong> <strong>orchids</strong> festoon the trees, from which you are saluted by the merry chatter of the parrots...” And two leagues later he arrives at a shr<strong>in</strong>e dedicated to Our Lady of C<strong>and</strong>elaria, where the offer<strong>in</strong>gs, among them <strong>orchids</strong>, were very numerous (Boddam-Whetham, 1877: 150, 151, 167, 172, 186, 261-262). Already on his way home, <strong>in</strong> Petén, near the village of Tenosique, he found Peristeria elata Hook. “Here for the first time I saw the curious Holy Ghost orchid -Espíritu Santo- so called on account of the yellow dove-like form that st<strong>and</strong>s <strong>in</strong> the centre of the white globular flower”. And <strong>in</strong> the same area: “One portion of the wood glowed so brilliantly with a crimson flush that I went to see the cause. It proved to be a number of splendid <strong>orchids</strong> whose flowers graduated <strong>in</strong> colour from a pale p<strong>in</strong>k to a bright spotted crimson, the <strong>in</strong>ner cup be<strong>in</strong>g p<strong>in</strong>k <strong>and</strong> white. The blossoms grew on a long spike, one of which I measured, be<strong>in</strong>g over five feet <strong>in</strong> length, <strong>and</strong> hav<strong>in</strong>g on it more than one hundred flowers. Afterwards I saw many trees laden with them, but all near Tenosique <strong>and</strong> none on the other side of the river” (Boddam-Whetham, 1877: 311). Arm<strong>and</strong>o Reclus (1843-1927), an officer <strong>in</strong> the French Navy, traveled to Panama on two occasions, dur<strong>in</strong>g the years of 1876 to 1878, recogniz<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong> survey<strong>in</strong>g possible routes for a future <strong>in</strong>teroceanic canal. In 1878 the Colombian government f<strong>in</strong>ally granted a French company the right to build a canal across the isthmus. Napoleon Bonaparte Wyse, Arm<strong>and</strong>o Reclus <strong>and</strong> Pedro J. Sosssa presented the plans for the famous project <strong>and</strong> founded the Universal Company of the Interoceanic Canal. A description of the travels by Reclus was published <strong>in</strong> Madrid (Reclus, 1972). We f<strong>in</strong>d <strong>in</strong> it some <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g references. Describ<strong>in</strong>g the merch<strong>and</strong>ises that were offered to the travelers <strong>in</strong> the railroad station of Gatún, Reclus writes: “They also offer a plant from the Orchid family (Peristeria elata), the Holy Ghost flower, which grows <strong>in</strong> great numbers <strong>in</strong> the neighborhood, <strong>and</strong> is very rare further away, as it seems; on the corolla of this flower, deliciously scented <strong>and</strong> of a color white as wax, the 139 stamen <strong>and</strong> pistils form a small group that resembles a t<strong>in</strong>y dove variegated with red”. Months later, already <strong>in</strong> the region of Darién, he describes ‘espavé’ trees (Anacardium excelsum): “Their short, wide <strong>and</strong> curved trunk, […] can almost be described as disappear<strong>in</strong>g under the stems of thous<strong>and</strong>s of <strong>orchids</strong>…” (Reclus, 1972: 50, 182). The British Mary Lester traveled <strong>in</strong> 1881 through Honduras, rid<strong>in</strong>g from Amapala, on the Pacific Coast, all the way to San Pedro Sula, where she expected to f<strong>in</strong>d employ as a teacher. She marveled about the forest: “… we went <strong>in</strong>to a labyr<strong>in</strong>th, go<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> <strong>and</strong> out, where the soil was firmer, free from the extended, uncovered roots of the trees, <strong>and</strong> from the garl<strong>and</strong>s of parasite plants that fell from above…” (Lester, 1971: 196). Carl Bovallius (1847-1917) descended from a family from Northern Sweden. His father, Robert Bovallius, was the Royal Librarian <strong>in</strong> Stockholm. Carl studied at the University of Upsala, where he became a professor <strong>in</strong> Biology. In 1881 he asked for a leave of absence <strong>and</strong> traveled to Central America. He visited Panama (February to July, 1882), Costa Rica (July to October, 1882) <strong>and</strong> Nicaragua (October, 1882 to April, 1883), return<strong>in</strong>g to Europe <strong>in</strong> 1883. The observations made dur<strong>in</strong>g his journey were the base for Viaje por Centroamérica (1881-1883), published <strong>in</strong> 1887 <strong>in</strong> Upsala <strong>and</strong> translated later <strong>in</strong>to Spanish <strong>in</strong> 1977. In his work he writes about a trip to the Atlantic region of Costa Rica, <strong>in</strong> the company of Julian Carmiol <strong>and</strong> Anton Huebsch, a botanist from Bohemia who had made the trip ma<strong>in</strong>ly “to collect <strong>and</strong> study <strong>orchids</strong>”. From the Hacienda Caño Seco, near Siquirres, where they stayed for several weeks, Bovallius <strong>and</strong> Huebsch cont<strong>in</strong>ued to the region of Talamanca, <strong>in</strong> the company of Costa Rican Bishop Bernard August Thiel. Jerónimo Fernández, the priest who acted as the chronicler of the expedition, tells us about the <strong>in</strong>dian village of San José Cabécar, where Huebsch found “an orchid unknown to science” (Bovallius, 1977: 125). Huebsch, a collector for S<strong>and</strong>er <strong>in</strong> St. Albans, traveled also <strong>in</strong> Ecuador <strong>and</strong> Colombia, where he discovered three new species: Maxillaria huebschii Rchb. f., Oncidium huebschii Rchb. f. <strong>and</strong> Masdevallia huebschiana Kraenzl. In Costa Rica he collected the type specimen of Masdevallia flaveola Rchb. f. In the type protologue we read: “discovered by Hübsch for Mr. F. S<strong>and</strong>er, who has just imported a stock of it”. From the same LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.
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