Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica 7 
years (Wagenitz, 1972), many species were described by other authors on the basis of 
material he had distributed. 
The 30 years following Wendland’s visit saw little notable collecting in Costa Rica. 
Physician and naturalist Sutton Hayes (?—1863), better known for his Panamanian col- 
lections, became perhaps the first American to botanize in Costa Rica when he stopped 
at Puntarenas in 1860. The shadowy A. R. Endres (?—1875) collected mainly orchids 
and ferns at scattered localities, especially from 1867 to 1870 (Luer, 1995). Endres had 
a predilection and a fine eye for the smaller orchids, such as Lepanthes, and found many 
species that have never since been encountered (for further information about Endres 
and the study of orchids in Costa Rica, see Ossenbach, 2003, manuscrito). Renowned 
German botanist Otto Kuntze (1843-1907) passed rapidly across Costa Rica in 1874 
during one of his trips around the world (Kuntze, 1881), entering at Limon and leaving 
from Puntarenas. His compatriot, Helmut Polakowsky (1847-1917), lived in Costa 
Rica during the period 1875-1877 and wrote one of the earliest descriptions of the 
flora (Polakowsky, 1879). His collections, mainly from the vicinity of San José and 
Cartago, were mostly destroyed at Berlin. Yet another German, plant collector Fried- 
rich Karl Lehmann (1850-1903), noted for his explorations in Colombia and Ecua- 
dor, botanized briefly in Costa Rica in late 1881 and early 1882, visiting mainly Carib- 
bean-slope localities such as Turrialba and the Rio Sucio. 
During the 1880s, several events converged to forever change the face of Costa Rican 
botany. British botanist William Botting Hemsley (1843-1924) published the Botany 
portion of F. D. Godman and O. Salvin’s sprawling Biologia centrali-americana, com- 
plete in five volumes which appeared from 
1879 to 1888. Though making no pretense 
of comprehensiveness (Poaceae, for ex- 
ample, were omitted altogether), this was 
the first serious attempt at a floristic inven- 
tory of the Mesoamerican region. In Costa 
Rica, sudden economic growth coupled with 
the modernizing impulses of liberal govern- 
ments began to foster a modest scientific 
renaissance (McCook, 1999). The Costa Ri- 
can Museo Nacional was founded in May 
1887 during the administration of President 
Bernardo Soto (1854-1931), as an organ of 
the Ministry of Development, whose minis- 
ter, Lic. Cleto Gonzalez Viquez (1858- 
1937), offered his enthusiastic support. The 
Museo’s first secretary became 22-year-old A SS 
Anastasio Alfaro (1865-1951), a native of William Botting Hemsley (1843-1924) 
Alajuela, who had played an important role Journal of the Kew Guild 3: 365. 1912 
