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

ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America
the right place at the right time to join into the active
biological exploration of Costa Rica, perhaps the most
exciting place biologically on our continent (Williams,
1969: 860).” “He had the opportunity to meet
professor Pittier when he visited this interesting region,
beginning a friendship which lasted during all of his
life” (Jiménez, 1967: 252). When his contract expired,
Lankester returned to England, but came back to
Costa Rica a few months later, called by Pittier to take
over the experimental station which the United Fruit
Company planned to establish in Zent, a project that
never became reality. In the following years he worked
in several farms, collected insects for doctor Schaus
and birds for the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. In
1908 he accepted the administration of a coffee farm
in Cachí, owned by Cecil V. Lindo, where he lived for
nine years with his wife Dorothea Hawker (Fig. 50B)
and his young family. It was during those years that
don Carlos began his collections in the nearby woods,
which in many cases proved to be new species. He sent
his first specimens for identification to Rolfe, at Kew.
One of them (Lankester 021, 1915, neighborhood of
Cachí) is probably the first new species of Orchidaceae
discovered by Lankester: Pleurothallis costaricensis
Rolfe.
Robert Allen Rolfe (1855-1921) (Fig. 50C), who
had stepped into the position of world master of
orchidology after the death of Reichenbach, was
Lankester’s logical contact, who in a journey to
England in 1920 brought an important collection
of orchids to Kew. Rolfe’s sudden death left this
collection unstudied, as happened to another
collection of Panamanian orchids, prepared by C. W.
Powell. Rolfe died at the age of 65, just when he was
about to set out on his first trip to Tropical America
(Panama and Costa Rica) (Reinikka, 1995: 278). “Kew
had promised financial help and extended his term of
service to include this field work, and the untimely
end of a cherished wish was a great disappointment
to Powell and the writer, both of whom had derived
much encouragement and help from his kindly cooperation
and guidance” (Lankester, 1944: 10-11).
One of Rolfe’s fundamental achievements was the
foundation of the Orchid Review in 1893, of which he
was the editor until his death in 1921. Shortly before
his death he was awarded the Victoria Medal of the
Royal Horticultural Society (Stapf, 1921: 8).
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After a brief interlude in England and Africa
(1920–1922), Lankester returned to Costa Rica
and moved later (1924) to live at “Las Cóncavas”,
a coffee farm that he had acquired in the vicinity
of Cartago. The year 1922 was an turning point in
Lankester’s career as an orchidologist: it brought the
first contact with Oakes Ames, that would develop
into a deep friendship. Ames, after returning from a
trip to Europe, wrote to Lankester: “At Kew I saw
many specimens collected by you in Costa Rica,
the greater part unnamed. As it will take some time
for Kew to recover from the loss of Rolfe and as
the Germans are making great efforts to assemble
Costa Rican material through Wercklé, Jimenez and
Tonduz, it seemed to me that you might be willing
to co-operate with me by stimulating orchidological
interest among your neighbors” (Letter from Ames to
Lankester, September 17, 1922). Lankester answered
immediately and became so, for the next 25 years,
the favorite collector of Ames, who discovered
among the specimens received from Las Cóncavas
more than 100 new species. Many were dedicated
to Lankester, such as: Campylocentrum lankesteri
Ames, Cranichis lankesteri Ames, Dichaea
lankesteri Ames, Dipterostele lankesteri (Ames)
Garay & G. A. Romero-González, Epidendrum
lankesteri Ames, Habenaria lankesteri Ames,
Hexisea lankesteri Ames, Lockhartia lankesteri
Ames, Malaxis lankesteri Ames, Maxillaria
lankesteri Ames, Notylia lankesteri Ames, Oncidium
lankesteri Ames, Ornithocephalus lankesteri Ames,
Stelis lankesteri Ames, Stellilabium lankesteri
(Ames) Dressler, Telipogon lankesteri Ames, and
Trigonidium lankesteri Ames. He also found a new
genus amongst Lankester’s collections: “There
seems to be a new genus among your specimens.
Lankesterella would be a good name (Letter from
Ames to Lankester, April 18, 1923). The new genus
was published in May, 1923. Ames never stopped
expressing his admiration and gratitude: “... for what
you have done my gratitude is immeasurable. I am
mindful of the great service you have done in my
behalf and I realize that there was no need for you
to regard me as anything more than a pestiferous
nuisance; a botanical mendicant reaching out toward
you, a greedy hand” (Letter to Lankester, December
16, 1923).
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.