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

ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America
was given the help of the Mexican Pablo La Llave
(1773-1833) (González Bueno & Rodríguez Nozal,
R., 2006: 173) But the wartime situation in which
Spain found itself did not favor the project. The main
part of the collections (particularly the herbarium)
came to the “Botanical Office” 15 controlled by
Pavón, especially after the forced exile of Mociño
to France in 1813, accused of collaborating with the
French occupation forces. The attempts by Sessé
and Mociño to publish a Mexican flora never bore
fruit (Fig. 20A). Between herbarium specimens and
botanical drawings made during the expedition, we
are left with a total of 136 species of Orchidaceae.
In many cases the species have not been identified.
In others there is no information about the locality of
collection, so that we can not be sure if they belong
to our area of study.
In spite of the circumstances that prevented the
publication of the scientific results, there is no doubt
that the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain is
a milestone in the history of our orchids.
The dispersal of the botanical collections
“Misfortunes always pursue men of genius”
Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote
Pavón, starting in 1814, and in charge of the
Botanical Office, began to handle the collections as if
they were his own, selling specimens of the herbarium
of the expedition to New Spain and duplicates of that
of the flora of Peru and Chile, so squandering the
funds which were under his care. In the meantime, in
England, the opulent botanist Aylmer Bourke Lambert
(1761-1842) (Fig. 20B) was named in 1798 as one of
the first members of the Linnean Society. A passionate
collector, Lambert amassed, through tenacity and
wealth, a large library and one of the most important
herbaria of his time. We do not know how Lambert got
notice of Pavón’s dealings, but we know that between
1814 and until 1825 Pavón sold to him more than
15,000 botanical and zoological specimens that were
kept at the Botanical Office in Madrid.
But Lambert was not the only one to receive
materials from Pavón. As an example, let us mention
the almost 5,000 specimens which Philip Baker Webb
received between 1826 y 1827, that today form part of
the herbarium of the Botanical Institute of Florence,
as part of a legacy from Webb to the Duke of Tuscany
(Fig. 20C).
John Lindley and the Lambert herbarium. Pavón’s
conduct does not admit excuses. But if we look at this
case from a practical point of view, the sale of the
herbarium specimens of the expedition was perhaps
the best way to bring the botanical richness of New
Spain into the hands of the botanists of those times
(although this was surely not the motive of Pavón).
The main herbarium that was conserved at the Royal
Botanical Garden in Madrid (probably with about
half of the original number of specimens) was not
unpacked until 1930. The specimens were numbered
and sent on loan to Chicago where, between 1936
and 1964, all were identified and photographed,
before being returned to Madrid (McVaugh, 2000: 1).
In other words: all specimens that were not sold by
Pavón had to wait over 140 years before they could
be studied!
Generous with his colleagues and friends,
Lambert always gave them free use of his library
and herbarium. In this manner the great John Lindley
(1799-1865) (Fig. 21A) was able to study and identify
many of the specimens that came from Madrid. In
his monumental work The Genera and Species of
Orchidaceous Plants (1830-40) Lindley mentions a
total of 12 species based on material that had been
sold by Pavón to Lambert.In all of his descriptions we
find the following note by Lindley ‘Hab. in Mexico;
Pavon, (exam. s. sp. in Herb. Lambert)’. This note
was the reason why Pavón was considered, for many
years, the collector of this species, forgetting that
he had never been to Mexico. Two of the species
described by Lindley (Epidendrum fruticosum y
Epidendrum radicans) have, as the name of their
author, ‘Pavon ex Lindl.’ This indicates that Lindley
respected an epithet that had already been suggested
by Pavón (Fig. 21B).
Augustin De Candolle and the “Ladies of Geneva”
The 2,000 illustrations of the botanical expedition to
New Spain went a different way. Mociño marched
15 The Botanical Office (“Oficina Botánica”), located in Madrid as a dependence of the Ministry of Justice of the Indies, was
conceived as a State Center for the study and publication of the American flora.
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.
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