72 “The earliest preserved herbarium specimen from Belize is attributed to the firm of Messrs. Loddiges of Engl<strong>and</strong>. The specimen, the type of Polystachya clavata L<strong>in</strong>dl. (1842), is preserved at Kew” (Balick et al., 2000: 5). The expedition of H.M.S. Herald (1844-1851) was the fourth of the already mentioned series of voyages undertaken by the British Navy to explore the coasts of the American Pacific. Carl Berthold Seemann (1825-1871) (Fig. 29C), who from his youth had had the ardent wish to see foreign countries, devoted much of his time to the study of the natural sciences, especially botany <strong>and</strong> anthropology (Anonymous, 1871: 1678). In 1844 he traveled to Kew, to become a botanist. There he met W. J. Hooker, who recommended him to succeed Thomas Edmonston, who had lost his life accidentally <strong>in</strong> Ecuador. In this way he came to participate <strong>in</strong> the expedition, which explored, among other regions, the isthmus of Panama <strong>and</strong> western Mexico. He arrived <strong>in</strong> Panama the 22 nd of September, 1846 <strong>and</strong> jo<strong>in</strong>ed the crew of the Herald <strong>in</strong> January of 1847. “Hav<strong>in</strong>g paid a visit to Acapulco, <strong>and</strong> measured some of the volcanoes of Guatemala, the vessels sailed for Panama, where they arrived on the 17 th of January, 1847, <strong>and</strong> were jo<strong>in</strong>ed by Mr. Berthold Seemann...” (Seemann, 1852-57: 6). In May Seemann was <strong>in</strong> Coiba, the largest isl<strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> the Central American Pacific <strong>and</strong> later his favorite place for the collection of plants. In December of the same year he explored the Darién <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> 1848 Chiriquí. He traveled through Mexico <strong>in</strong> 1848 <strong>and</strong> 1849. “When <strong>in</strong> 1848 Berthold Seemann po<strong>in</strong>ted out that ‘the isthmus of Panama, this part of New Granada that, like a bridge, connects the two great cont<strong>in</strong>ents of America, their flora, fauna <strong>and</strong> races’, he became perhaps the first scientist to describe Panama as the biological bridge of the Americas” (Heckadon-Moreno, 1998: 31). “About this time, Dr. Seemann’s scientific labours attracted the attention of the Imperial German Academy of Naturalists, <strong>and</strong> soon after he was made a member... ” (Anonymous, 1871: 1678). A short time later he was elected Vice-president for life. He returned to Panama <strong>and</strong> met von Warscewicz. Seemann wrote: “We spent several days <strong>in</strong> Taboga, the most beautiful isl<strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> the bay. A mount rises <strong>in</strong> its center of about 1,000 feet of altitude, cultivated LANKESTERIANA LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009. with orchards <strong>and</strong> vegetables almost to its summit. Small streams run to the valley where, between palms <strong>and</strong> tamar<strong>in</strong>ds, the huts of the natives lie almost hidden” (Heckadon Moreno, 1988: 27). He returned to Engl<strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> 1851, with more than 1,000 specimens of plants. Between 1852 <strong>and</strong> 1857, Seemann published his The Botany of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald, a book <strong>in</strong> four volumes, one of which is the Flora of the Isthmus of Panama. It is the first flora of Central America after Mociño’s Flora de Guatemala <strong>and</strong> Beurl<strong>in</strong>g’s Primitiae florae portobellensis, <strong>and</strong> Seemann described there 104 species of <strong>orchids</strong>. In 1853 he started the journal Bonpl<strong>and</strong>ia, which, though published <strong>in</strong> Hannover, he edited <strong>in</strong> London, <strong>and</strong> to which many of the lead<strong>in</strong>g botanists of all nations contributed. In 1865 he returned to Central America, employed by English <strong>in</strong>terests to explore <strong>and</strong> operate gold m<strong>in</strong>es <strong>in</strong> Nicaragua, where he started the operations of the m<strong>in</strong>e of El Javalí, <strong>in</strong> Chontales. From Nicaragua he traveled frequently to Panama, <strong>and</strong> although fully occupied with his bus<strong>in</strong>ess affairs, he always found time for botanical exploration. At some po<strong>in</strong>t he must have visited Costa Rica, if we believe Endrés, who <strong>in</strong> 1869 wrote to Capta<strong>in</strong> Dow: “Please do let me know whether <strong>and</strong> when Dr. Seemann will return” (letter to Capt. Dow, November 3, 1869). He dreamed with go<strong>in</strong>g back some day to scientific <strong>in</strong>vestigation, but died <strong>in</strong> Chontales <strong>in</strong> October of 1871, at the age of fortysix, another victim of yellow fever. Among Seemann’s collections are the type specimens of Pleurothallis perpusilla (Seemann 1565, Panama) <strong>and</strong> Masdevallia chontalensis (Seemann 180, Nicaragua), both described by Reichenbach. Seemann met <strong>in</strong> Chontales the English geologist <strong>and</strong> naturalist Ralph Tate (1840-1901). “... [Tate] made a small collection of plants at Chontales…at about the same date as Seemann, <strong>and</strong> perhaps <strong>in</strong> company with him, for the numbers are often [...] the same <strong>in</strong> the two collections” (Hemsley, 1887: 132-133). Among the collections by Tate are Physurus vag<strong>in</strong>atus Hook. <strong>and</strong> Isochilus l<strong>in</strong>earis R. Br. Dendrobium seemannii, L. O. Williams, Taeniophyllum seemannii Rchb. f. <strong>and</strong> Trigonidium seemannii Rchb. f. were dedicated to Seemann. The only illustration of Orchidaceae <strong>in</strong> Seemann’s work is that of Cypripedium hartwegii Rchb. f. (Fig. 29D).
A B ossenbaCh — Orchids <strong>and</strong> <strong>orchidology</strong> <strong>in</strong> Central America Figure 28. A — Vignette by Ge<strong>org</strong>e Cruikshank. From Bateman, 1837-43. B — The Port of El Realejo. In Wells, 1857: 64. LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009. 73
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