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

ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America
on a total of 78 hectares. The United Fruit Company
kept control and maintained the station until 1974,
when the gardens were donated to the government of
Honduras. The government neglected the installations,
causing the loss of many of the precious plants. After
several years under government control, the garden
was transferred to the administration of the esnaCiFor,
the National School for Forestry Sciences. Since then,
Lancetilla has managed to become auto sufficient and
very productive as a center of research and production.
Under the name of Lancetilla Botanical Garden, it is
the second in importance of its kind in the world.
In 1929 Wilson Popenoe and his wife acquired the
ruins of a colonial mansion in Antigua, Guatemala, and
began a complete restoration. Today, occupied by their
daughters, ‘Casa Popenoe’ is one of the most important
colonial buildings in Antigua and a must-see for any
tourist. Finally, Wilson Popenoe became in 1942 the
founding director of the Pan American Agricultural
School “El Zamorano”, near Tegucigalpa, of which
we will talk later. Popenoe received honorary degrees
from Pomona College and the University of Florida
and many awards in recognition of his work from
scientific societies and foreign governments.
He was during his whole life a passionate researcher
on avocados (Persea americana) and traveled across
the American continents in search of new species to
improve those that were under cultivation. His most
important discoveries were the base for his Manual of
Tropical and Subtropical Fruits, published in 1920.
Standley dedicated to him many species of other
families, among them Begonia popenoei from the
Begoniaceae and Ficus popenoei from the Moraceae.
Lancetilla has only an indirect relation to our
history. But during many years it was a place that
attracted naturalists from all over the world, who
used the Experiment Station as their headquarters
and made great contributions to the knowledge of the
flora of the region. As Standley wrote: “Never have
I worked amid such agreeable surroundings, with so
many comforts, and with so many conveniences for
the successful prosecution of field work. Fortunate
are those who have the opportunity of working in
such a congenial atmosphere as prevails in Lancetilla”
(Standley, 1931: 49).
In the neighboring town of San Pedro Sula, the
brothers Héctor and Tito Pérez Estrada established
a private botanical garden, at the same time of the
establishment of Lancetilla. Wilson Popenoe wrote:
“... the brothers Pérez Estrada are two unique
characters in Honduras, as their garden is unique
not only in this country but in the whole territory
between Mexico and Panama... For many years
they have cultivated hundreds of exotic plants that
have been introduced from all regions of the world,
transforming this garden into a beautiful flower
garden of Nature...” (Escoto, 2002: 102-103). The
garden was reestablished in 1994 under the name of
‘Jardín Botánico Municipal Pérez Estrada’. Tito Pérez
Estrada was considered the first botanist of San Pedro
Sula. To him we owe the only known biographical
sketch about the life of Dr. Karl Thieme (Estrada,
1952).
from The ‘good neIghbor’ polIcy
To world war II
181
“In the field of world policy I would dedicate
this nation to the policy of the good neighbor
— the neighbor who resolutely respects himself
and, because he does so, respects the rights of
others”.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945)
took office in 1933 determined to improve relations
with the nations of Central and South America.
Under his leadership the United States emphasized
cooperation and trade rather than military force to
maintain stability in the hemisphere. Roosevelt’s
Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, participated in the
Montevideo Conference of December 1933, where
he backed a declaration favored by most nations
of the Western Hemisphere: “No state has the right
to intervene in the internal or external affairs of
another”. Roosevelt stated, “The definite policy of the
United States from now on is one opposed to armed
intervention”. In 1934, at Roosevelt’s direction, the
1903 treaty with Cuba that gave the United States
the right to intervene to preserve internal stability
or independence was abrogated. Although domestic
economic problems and World War II diverted
attention from the Western Hemisphere, Roosevelt’s
Good Neighbor policy represented an attempt to
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.