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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

4 successfully concluded in 1568, with the establishment of the Captaincy General of Guatemala that included Chiapas, Soconusco, Guatemala, El Salvador, Verapaz, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. During the XVI Century, the history of Central America cannot be separated from that of Mexico. Beginning with the XVII Century however, although nominally dependant on the Vicekingdom of New Spain, the distance from the capital gave the Captaincy General of Guatemala more autonomy to establish relations with the mother country. In the south, Panama took a different course. After Vasco Núñez de Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean in 1513 and Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire in 1533, Panama became the crossing point for all communications between Spain and the future Vicekingdom of Peru. The separation of Panama from the rest of Central America was consolidated in 1717, when Spain established in Santa Fe de Bogotá the Vicekingdom of New Granada, into which Panama was integrated. After the defeat of the Invincible Armada in 1588, Spain consumed herself in sterile wars against Great Britain and France. The growing British Empire gained commercial advantages and set foot in the LANKESTERIANA LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009. Caribbean, invading Jamaica in 1655. In 1673, through the Treaty of Paris, the Spanish allowed the British to log in a prescribed area of Belize (Miller Carlstroem & Miller, 2002: 13). The famous buccaneer and cartographer William Dampier alternated his life between logging in Belize and Honduras and plundering the Spanish fleets in the Caribbean between 1675 and 1688. France and Holland did not stay behind. From the Lesser Antilles to the Guyanas, Spain lost slowly the absolute control it had exercised during the XVI Century over the Caribbean and its coasts (Fig. 2A). The decadence of the Empire continued throughout the XVII Century. Without precious metals to offer to the crown, the Central American colonies languished under the Hapsburg kings Philip III, Philip IV and Charles II. Unable to beget an heir, the last monarch of the Hapsburg dynasty made his will, in 1700, in favor of Philip of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV, King of France: with him, the house of Bourbon arrived at the throne of Spain (García de Cortázar & González Vesga, 1994: 337). Under Philip V (1700-1746) and Fernando VI (1746- 1759), Spain attempted to reorganize the Empire. In the second half of the XVII Century the enlightened the first years of the XX century. This was the term used by Hemsley (1883) in his Biologia Centrali-Americana and Schlechter (1918) in his Kritische Aufzählung der bisher aus Zentral-Amerika bekanntgewordenen Orchidaceen. Both used the term in a very broad sense, including in their catalogues the species known from western Panama to the Río Grande, which marks the border between Mexico and the United States. Williams (1956) comes much closer to the geological and phytogeographical reality when he writes about the Orchidaceae of Central America, British Honduras and Panama, adding in his introduction that southeastern Mexico (to the isthmus of Tehuantepec) belongs biologically to Central America. Williams is the first to insinuate in the title of his work the political and historical differences of Panama and Belize with respect to the five Central American nations sensu strictu. In the last decades of the XX century the term “Mesoamerica” begins to gain adepts in our region, mainly through the publication of the Flora Mesoamericana by the Missouri Botanical Garden, as the region that comprises all of Panama through southeastern Mexico (states of Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, Chiapas and the eastern part of Veracruz and Oaxaca). The area includes the Swan and Bay Islands in Honduras and Cocos Island in Costa Rica. This definition is contradictory for various reasons. The northern limit is defined by a geological accident, the isthmus of Tehuantepec, an imaginary line that crosses the southeastern part of the Mexican states of Veracruz and Oaxaca. The southern limit is formed by the border between Panama and Colombia. If we accept the theory that Central America was probably an archipelago without continental connection with either North or South America (following Dressler, 1993), then we would accept the northern limit (Tehuantepec) but would have to establish the southern limit in its geological counterpart, the isthmus of Panama. But even the most superficial study about the distribution of plants in the region will show that, in phytogeographical terms, many species escape their geological limits. Therefore, these limits should be extended to the Colombian Chocó and northern Ecuador in the south and to the Mexican states of Michoacán, Mexico and Puebla in the north. Quesada (1980) defines the watershed of the Atrato River in the Colombian Chocó as the “southern limit of southern Central America”. To confuse things even more, the database of the Missouri Botanical Garden includes under “Mesoamerican specimens” all plants collected between northern Mexico and eastern Panama, returning curiously to the old definitions of Hemsley and Schlechter. To make matters worse, Jorge León (pers. com., 2003) is right in stating that Mesoamerica is not a geographical but a cultural term, that comprises the areas that in pre-Columbian times were under the influence of the ancient Maya civilization in Guatemala and Yucatan, as well as those that were dominated (centuries later) by those cultures that had their center of power in Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Those territories had their northern limit in the present Mexican states of Sinaloa, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas and their southern limit in northwestern Costa Rica. Excluded from the term “Mesoamerica” in a cultural sense are the totality of Panama, most of Costa Rica and the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua and Honduras: territories that were under the influence of the Chibcha cultures of northern South America. 3 Gracias a Dios, in English “Thanks to God”. Columbus gave this name to the cape after he had sailed over 70 days against a terrible storm.
ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America A B C Figure 1. A — Map of the Pacific Coast of Central America and South Western Mexico. From Malaspina, 1990: 240. b — Map of the northern South American Pacific Coast and of Panama. From Malaspina, 1990: 240. C — Map of Central America showing the limits of the ancient Mesoamericancultures. In Carmack et al., 1996: 30. LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009. 5
Page 1 and 2: LANKESTERIANA 9(1-2): 1-268. 2009.
Page 3: In Belize, the Botanical Station wa
Page 7 and 8: despotism penetrated the social sec
Page 9 and 10: A B C ossenbaCh — Orchids and orc
Page 11 and 12: ut we believe that they resemble th
Page 13 and 14: ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidolo
Page 15 and 16: Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco (Gómez-Po
Page 19 and 20: A ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchido
Page 21 and 22: C ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchido
Page 43 and 44: C ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchido
Page 47 and 48: The expedition split in two and in
Page 51 and 52: A C ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchi
Page 55 and 56:
ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidolo
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
A C ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchi
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
B A ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchi
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
A B ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchi
Page 75 and 76:
The German-Belgian connection ossen
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
William Walker in Central America o
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
The Mexican Empire of Maximilian of
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Other travelers in Central America
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
A ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchido
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
institution in the research of the
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Page 199 and 200:
Page 201 and 202:
Page 203 and 204:
Page 205 and 206:
Page 207 and 208:
Page 209 and 210:
Page 211 and 212:
Page 213 and 214:
A B C ossenbaCh — Orchids and orc
Page 215 and 216:
Page 217 and 218:
Page 219 and 220:
Page 221 and 222:
Page 223 and 224:
Page 225 and 226:
Page 227 and 228:
show all

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

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?