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208 was not even worth putting on a herbarium sheet (Dr. Garay), and “Mr. Heller made very good sketches of the orchids he collected, but usually lousy specimens or none, and these were usually with inadequate data” (Dr. Williams) (Hamer, 1985: 3). “[Heller] had prepared a manuscript or a check list totaling 57 pages, all classified phylogenetically, as proposed by Dr. Dressler. His work was however never published, since his interests had changed” (Hamer, 1985: 1). Alfonso Heller (as he was called in Nicaragua) had amassed information about 650 species, with drawings and descriptions and sometimes photos. About 1968 he suddenly lost interest in orchids and dedicated himself to Nicaraguan archaeology. Born in Houlton, Maine, Alex Drum Hawkes (1927-1977) commenced working with orchids at the age of eleven. Such famous botanists as Oakes Ames, Liberty Hyde Bailey and David Fairchild were among his early influential mentors. At the age of twelve his first article on the subject was published, the forerunner of many thousands of papers on orchids and other largely tropical plants (Blowers, 1965: 15- 16). He soon became interested in the orchids of Tropics and at the early age of 23 he published his The Genus Habenaria in Florida (Hawkes, 1950) and one year later his checklist of Cuban orchids (Hawkes, 1951). From 1952 to 1959 he edited the short-lived Orchid Journal, where important articles about the orchids of our region were published. Somewhat later he edited The Orchid Weekly (originally named the South Florida Orchid Weekly) in the years 1958-1967. Then came his first book, Cultural Directions for Orchids (1960), in 1961 Orchids, Their Botany and Culture and in 1965 his Encyclopaedia of Cultivated Orchids, which received very poor reviews from many knowledgeable orchidologists. Probably the harshest critic was that of Leslie A. Garay. “If the author means that Ames through his writings taught him and inspired the writing of this monumental work, then Professor Ames for the first time, although post mortem, became a failure. Professor Ames was known to be a very exact and meticulous researcher and a most careful investigator; yet none of these aspects of Ames’ teaching is apparent anywhere in Mr. Hawkes’ book”. And finally, “I have read this book with the same critical eye as Professor Ames, to whom it is dedicated, would have, and am sure, if he were alive LANKESTERIANA LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009. today, he would agree with me that 12 guineas or $36.00 is too high a price to pay even for such a large amount of misinformation” (Garay, 1966: 197-199). A highly qualified ‘chef’, Hawkes wrote also on cooking, and published several popular books on this subject. Hawke’s first experience in Central America was in Belize, where he collected orchids in 1958. In 1959 he came to Nicaragua and established a longlasting friendship with Heller, who very soon hired him to help him in his studies of Nicaraguan orchids. “My purpose was, of course, to see and collect orchids, and in this matter I was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Alfonso H. Heller ...” (Hawkes, 1959). He continued traveling to this country and throughout Central and South America, and discovered, together with Heller, many new species, which were often named in their honor: Epidendrum goodspeedianum A.D. Hawkes, Epidendrum restrepoanum A.D. Hawkes, Epidendrum curtisii A.D. Hawkes, Epidendrum neocauliflorum A.D. Hawkes, Epidendrum vulcanicola A.H. Heller, Eurystyles borealis A.H. Heller, Kegeliella atropilosa L.O. Williams & A.H. Heller, Odontoglossum subcruciforme A.H. Heller. Pleurothallis lappiformis A. Heller & L.O. Williams, Pleurothallis exesilabia A.H. Heller & A.D. Hawkes, Pleurothallis carnosilabia A.H. Heller & A.D. Hawkes, Pleurothallis chontalensis A.H. Heller & A.D. Hawkes, Sobralia chatoensis A.H. Heller & A.D. Hawkes, Sobralia triandra A.H. Heller & A.D. Hawkes, Epidendrum hawkesii A.H. Heller, Eria hawkesii A.H. Heller, Oncidium hawkesianum Moir, Pleurothallis alexii A.H. Heller, Pleurothallis hawkesii Flickinger, Sobralia hawkesii A.H. Heller, Chondrorhyncha helleri Fowlie, Dressleria helleri Dodson, Lepanthes helleri A.D. Hawkes, Pleurothallis helleri A.D. Hawkes, Pleurothallis helleriana L.O. Williams, Sobralia helleri A.D. Hawkes, Stellilabium helleri L.O. Williams, and Vanilla helleri A.D. Hawkes. Hawkes described the new genera Helleriella and Hellerorchis, named in honor of his friend and patron. He died in Norbrook, Jamaica, where he had spent the last ten years of his life. During his years in Jamaica he wrote for the Jamaica Weekly Gleaner, conducted a radio program on gourmet coking, taught Portuguese at Priory School (he spoke six languages) and had become a reputable artist.
ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America Clarence Klaus Horich: the last of the adventurers. Clarence Klaus Horich (1930-1994) (Fig. 59A) was born probably 100 years too late. His character, romantic and adventurous, bohemian and dreaming, belonged more to the XIX century than to the hard years of the European post-war. If we want to find a twin soul to Horich’s, we have to go back in time to re-discover his alter ego, George Ure Skinner [...], who explored Central America in the first half of the XIX century. [...] Horich dreamed sometimes with living from the orchids. More probably, the orchids ended living from him (Ossenbach, 2003: 47-48). After learning gardening in Lüdenscheid (Germany), Horich emigrated in 1951 to Canada (like so many other Germans who tried to escape the miseries of the destroyed Germany) and soon found employ in the orchid nursery of Albert Withers. It was Withers (who already had collected orchids in South America) who encouraged Horich to follow his steps (Bock, 1994: 121). In 1953 he started on his first collecting expeditions, which led him to Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia. He not only hunted for plants, but was also interested in living animals. He went after reptiles and snakes for the Canadian Stanley Park in Oaxaca and Chiapas and traveled during 11 months collecting orchids for the English firm of Sanders (Jenny, 2000: 21). In Central America, he collected intensively in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, until he finally settled in Costa Rica in 1957. In 1979 he became a Costa Rican citizen. He became a purveyor of living plants for many botanical gardens, among which we find those of the University of Heidelberg, Montreal, Vancouver, Missouri, Vienna, Berlin, Bonn, Hannover, Frankfurt and the Lankester Botanical Garden of the University of Costa Rica. According to Jenny (2007, pers. comm.), he charged between 5 and 10 Dollars for a good plant, and up to 60 Dollars for rarities such as Coryanthes. In words of Dr. Hans-Georg Preissel, at that time director of the Botanical Garden in Hannover: “A botanical garden needs original material. Horich is for us one of these pioneers who has supplied the collections that make us attractive on an international level” (KRW, 1990). Nothing could stop him: he wasn’t afraid to cross the Reventazón River on precarious ferry cables, nor to cross the Gulf of Nicoya in a small boat with a crew of Coryanthes and ants (Horich, 1984). He didn’t have 209 to deal with phytosanitary certificates nor with CITES’ rules which would have been intolerable obstacles for somebody like Clarence Horich. Soon he started writing about the plants, the habitat and especially about his adventures on collecting trips. “Between 1953 and 1994 he published more than 230 articles about orchids, and in spite of the fact that the reader had to sift carefully between facts and adventure, those articles contained the best descriptions of localities and habitats we have from Central America. I always found it was a real adventure to travel and collect with him; he was one of the best plant experts in Costa Rica and a day with him in the forest was something like a short and intensive course in botany and ecology. His private plant collection in his backyard in San José was better than most of the collections of Costa Rican plants in botanical gardens. He had an extremely good eye for small plants and he had a sixth sense where and how to find new things” (Jenny, 2000: 21). Horich was proud to have been the guide through Costa Rica’s forests of the world’s leading orchidologists of his time. Between 1960 and 1965 he traveled through the most remote regions with Jack Fowlie and Cal Dodson. In later years he was the guide of Rebecca Northen, Rudolf Jenny, Eric Hágsater and Robert Dressler, among others. Rudolf Jenny honored Horich (with whom he had collected orchids in Costa Rica in 1976, 1980, 1984 and 1986) with the dedication of a new genus: Horichia, with the type species Horichia dressleri. Many other species were dedicated to him: Cischweinfia horichii Senghas & T. Neudecker, Coryanthes horichiana Jenny, Epidendrum horichii Hágsater, Gongora horichiana Fowlie, Lepanthes horichii Luer, Maxillaria horichii Senghas, Mesospinidium horichii I. Bock, Mormodes horichii Fowlie, Pleurothallis horichii Luer, Stanhopea x horichiana Jenny, Telipogon horichianus Braas, and Teuscheria horichiana Jenny & Braem. Horich’s lifelong companion, Elcimey Baldizón, was honored by Hágsater with Epidendrum elcimeyae and by Braas & Horich with Telipogon elcimeyae. “It appears Jack Fowlie was a character and is sorely missed. The world is sorely lacking characters these days”. Anonymous “I practice medicine so I can afford to study orchids in their native habitats” (Hetherington, 1994: 5). Jack LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.
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