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

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botanist Baron von Mueller, for the introduction
of Eucalyptus into California. From his Australian
collections, Schlechtendahl (1847) described as new
species of Orchidaceae Caladenia behrii y Diuris
behrii. In 1888, Behr published his Flora of the Vicinity
of San Francisco. Behr had visited Central America
around 1849 and collected several specimens of
orchids in the region of Chagres, Panama, among them
the type specimen of Scaphyglottis behrii Rchb. f. ex
Hemsl. (Behr s.n., Chagres, Panama). “As a physician
he was second to none in medical knowledge and
kept well posted on the progress in medical science.
It cannot be said that he loved his profession. Still less
did he understand the art, so highly developed among
modern physicians, of making it pay” (Essig, 1965:
555).
The English sailor John Melmoth Dow (1827-1892)
(Fig. 36B) was already introduced in the previous
chapter. Until 1850 he had transported passengers
across the isthmus by the Nicaragua route. As captain of
the steamers Columbus and Golden Age, he inaugurated
the Central American service of the ‘Panama Railroad
Company Steamship Line’, traveling from Panama
to San Francisco, along the western coast of Central
American. He developed a strong friendship with
Skinner and Salvin and was responsible for the safe
transportation of many live orchid plants from Central
America to England. Of him writes Bovallius: “... since
long time known for his generosity and indefatigable
good will towards the researchers of the nature of
these regions” (Bovallius, 1974: 99). Bateman honored
Dow with the dedication of his Cattleya dowiana and
Endrés and Reichenbach did the same with Lycaste
dowiana. Dow was also interested in marine fauna
and sent important collections to the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington. In his navigation diary, on
October 16, 1854, he wrote: “The health of the Isthmus
is good, and the railroad is progressing with great
rapidity...”. However, the health cannot been as good
as Dow thought, if we believe a popular saying cited
by Bovallius in his book, in that “under each crosstie of
the rails lies the body of a Chinese or a white man…”
(Bovallius, 1974: 34).
Edouard Placide Duchassaing de Fontbressin
(1819-1873), a French citizen, was born in the island
of Guadeloupe and took a medical degree in Paris. He
LANKESTERIANA
26 The stems of Selenipedium chica reach often a height of 5 meters.
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.
returned to practice medicine in that island, and at St.
Thomas, he made natural history collections from 1844
to 1848. Because of the revolution in the latter year he
moved to Panama, where he collected between 1849
and 1851. “During these years he had a sanitarium at
Panama, and in his leisure time collected plants in the
neighborhood of the city and on Taboga Island” (Standley,
1928: 44-45). Although he did not collect many orchids,
he is famous for having discovered the largest terrestrial
orchid in Central America: Selenipedium chica Rchb.
f. (Duchassaing s.n., Panama) 26 (Fig. 36C). The plants
collected by Duchassaing where twelve to fifteen feet
high and had been bought by him from an Indian chief
(Anonymous, 1923: 69). Duchassaing reported that the
fruits of S. chica produced a fragrant substance similar to
that of vanilla. For this reason they were called in Panama
‘vainilla de árbol’ (= ‘tree vanilla’). The specimens
collected by Duchassaing were sent to Walpers, from
whom they were purchased by Grisebach. They were
the base for Grisebach’s Novitiae flora panamensis
(Bonplandia 6: 2-12, 1858), where some new species are
described. Of great importance were also Duchassaing’s
contributions to the investigation of marine fauna, of
which he made important collections in Panama.
Moritz Wagner (1813-1887) (Fig. 36D) and Carl
Ritter von Scherzer (1821-1903), the former German
and the latter Austrian, traveled in 1852 through the
United States, and embarked for Central America in
the first months of 1853 (Wolkenhauer, 188: 92).
Wagner, the more important of the two for our story,
was an experienced traveler, influenced by the ideas
of Humboldt and Darwin. He received his education
at the University of Augsburg, worked later as a clerk
in a trading company in Marseille and went in 1834 to
Paris, Erlangen and Munich to study natural sciences.
He visited Algeria in 1836-38, studied geology in
Goettingen from 1838 to 1842 and explored the
Caucasus and Armenia in 1842-46. Italy followed in
1846-49 and Asia Minor, Persia and the Kurdistan in
1850-51. Wagner & Scherzer arrived at San Juan del
Norte in April of that year and traveled to Costa Rica
by way of the rivers San Juan and Sarapiquí.
The first notice of this route dates back to 1620,
when Diego de Mercado, at the request of the Spanish
authorities, who were interested in finding a way
between the Atlantic and the Pacific because of the