Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica 5 
ing 1853 and 1854, and left a vivid account of 3 
their experiences (Wagner & Scherzer, 1856); set 
nevertheless, very few herbarium specimens pre- * 
pared by them are known. According to Leon 
(2003: 139), Wagner and Scherzer may well have 
lost many collections in the earthquake that co- 
incided with their visit to El Salvador. 
Perhaps the first resident plant collector in 
Costa Rica was the German physician Carl 
Hoffmann (1823—1859), who lived in the coun- 
try for the final five years of his prematurely 
truncated existence. He arrived in Costa Rica, in 
1854, in the company of compatriots and fellow 
naturalists Julian Carmiol (1807-1885) and 
Alexander (Alejandro) von Frantzius (1821- 
1877), both of whom left more of a legacy in Joseph von Warszewicz (1812-1866) 
horticulture (Carmiol), ornithology (both), or ge- pias Ae vous ef Ponce. 
: Documentation 
ography (von Frantzius) than as plant collectors 
(for more about Carmiol and von Frantzius, see Jiménez, 1969; Carmiol C., 1973; 
Monge-Najera, 1994). Hoffmann worked mainly in the central part of Costa Rica, and 
made well documented ascents of Volcan Irazi (Hoffmann, 1856) and Volcan Barva 
(Hoffmann, 1858). His collection of some 800 numbers, though modest by modern 
standards, is of disproportionate importance because of the preponderance of types. 
Unfortunately, most were destroyed at Berlin by 
war action, though photographs of many still 
exist (see Meléndez, 1976, for further informa- 
tion about Hoffmann). 
Horticulturist Hermann Wendland (1825— 
1903) of Hannover, Germany, arrived in Costa 
Rica at Puntarenas on 9 March 1857 (G. Wa- 
genitz, unpubl. data), and left via the Sarapiqui 
valley in August of the same year. Like most of 
his contemporaries, he collected mainly in the 
central portion of the country. Unlike them, how- 
ever, Wendland had a special interest in large 
monocots —especially palms, Araceae, and Cy- 
clanthaceae—and made the earliest collections 
of many of these intractable plants. He also ex- 
plored parts of the country then regarded as in- 
accessible. Although Wendland’s personal her- Hermann Wendland (1825-1903) 
barium (now at GOET) was misplaced for many Gartenflora 52: 125. 1903 
