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

170
absence of the professor of Natural Sciences at the
Normal School, Valerio was called to substitute for
him, being at the same time a student and the teacher
of his classmates.
In 1924 Juvenal Valerio was called by the Ministry
of Education to assist Standley during his excursions
in Costa Rica. Standley wrote in 1926: “I have great
hopes in what Valerio will collect in Guanacaste. He
knows now how to make collections and when he has
gone out alone, he has made the greatest collections,
larger than those of any botanist that I know” (Letter
to Otón Jiménez, 1926). In 1937, Valerio was Director
of the National Museum of Costa Rica. Through his
relation with Standley, he was invited in 1940 as a
special guest to the VIII Pan-American Scientific
Congress in Washington, D.C. A short time later, in
1942, he became, together with Standley, one of the
founders of the Pan-American Agricultural School
“El Zamorano”, in Honduras. Don Juvenal returned
to Costa Rica and continued until his death dedicated
to the study of the national flora, as a researcher at
the Tropical Agricultural Center for Research and
Education (CATIE), in Turrialba, and as a teacher at
the University of Costa Rica. When he died, his body
was carried to his home town, where he had asked to
be buried. The whole country reacted in indignation
when the local priest refused to let Valerio’s remains
into the church, for the only reason that he had
been a mason. Many orchid species carry his name:
Brachionidium valerioi Ames & C. Schweinf.,
Lepanthes valerioi Luer, Maxillaria valerioi Ames
& C. Schweinf., Octomeria valerioi Ames & C.
Schweinf., Ornithocephalus valerioi Ames & C.
Schweinf. and Schiedeella valerioi (Ames & C.
Schweinf.) Szlach. & C. J. Sheviak .
Standley and Valerio planned to publish a flora of
Costa Rica in Spanish. Valerio argued to his superiors
that a Spanish edition was essential so that it would
be accessible to naturalists, students and the public
of Costa Rica. But Valerio’s hopes vanished after the
elections in the spring of 1936. Although the first
fascicles were published, the new government, due
to the economic crisis, cancelled the publications of
all works of general interest, including the Flora de
Costa Rica. The Field Museum of Chicago published
the Flora of Costa Rica in four parts, between
October of 1937 and November of 1938. 979 species
LANKESTERIANA
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.
of Orchidaceae were mentioned in its Part I (1937).
“[Valerio] was a tireless worker, always patient and
considerate, even when he had frequent reason for
provocation to quite other moods. His kindness and
friendship will always be treasured by one who often
has sorely tried both” (Standley, 1937: 60-61).
From November 1927 to March 1928 Standley
explored the region of Tela, in the northeastern coast
of Honduras, using as his headquarters the Experiment
Station of Lancetilla, of the Tela Railroad Company.
With the collaboration of Wilson Popenoe, director
of the station, and of Victor M. Cutter, president of
the United Fruit Company, Standley wrote a Flora of
Lancetilla Valley that was published in 1931. Standley
enumerated in this work 50 species of Orchidaceae
in 25 genera. Oakes Ames was again responsible
for the determination of the orchids, as was usual
in all of Standley’s floras. One year earlier, in 1930,
Standley had published a Flora of Yucatán (Standley,
1930b), in which he mentioned 21 species of orchids
in 13 genera. However, Standley admitted that he
had never visited the region and that his work was
based solely on herbarium specimens. “Of the various
floras prepared by the present writer, this is the only
one covering a region in which he has not himself
collected. His personal experience with the Yucatan
flora is a remote and intangible one, consisting as it
does of a view of the low green shore from the deck
of a ship bound southwards to Guatemala” (Standley,
1930b: 166). In fact, the orchids enumerated by
Standley were those collected by George Gaumer
some years earlier. Finally, Standley prepared, in
collaboration with his good friend S. J. Record, The
forest and flora of British Honduras (1936). Samuel
Jones Record (1881-1945) collected in Guatemala,
Belize and Honduras between 1926 and 1927 and
was in Belize with Standley in 1936. In this work,
Standley and Record mentioned 21 species of orchids
in 13 genera. One of the few specimens of orchids
collected by Record was Erythrodes querceticola
(Lindl.) Ames (Record s.n., Belize). The story of
Standley and the orchids of Central America does not
end here. We will come back to this great character in
the next chapters, because Standley would continue to
be an outstanding figure in the history of the Central
American flora until his death in 1963.
Wilhelm Heinrich Ferdinand Nevermann (1881-