Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica 15 
ist, arrived in Costa Rica during the Pittier era and remained until his death (Gomez P., 
1977, 1978). Though Wercklé’s collections were usually carelessly prepared and poorly 
annotated, he had a good eye for novelties (Hasler & Baumann, 2000: 145) and explored 
little known and floristically rich regions (see also Standley, 1926; Jiménez, manuscript). 
His discriminating fern and orchid collections, comprising many types, were particu- 
larly significant, and he left an early and much acclaimed first-hand analysis of Costa 
Rican phytogeography (Wercklé, 1909). Wercklé’s field work—as well as that of Ton- 
duz and basically all the foreign naturalists (especially the Americans) who visited Costa 
Rica during the first half of the 20th century —benefited from the patronage of Cuban- 
born Dofia Amparo Loépez-Calleja de Zeledén (1870-1951), wife of famed Costa 
Rican ornithologist José Castulo Zeled6n, who gave honor to her given name (amparo 
= refuge, shelter). Doha Amparo not only sponsored and cared for the naturalists of her 
time (especially Wercklé), but also participated substantially in the study of Costa Rican 
natural history (see, e.g., Standley, 1952a; Jiménez, 1959, manuscript). Her personal 
collection of living orchids yielded many valuable records (see Schlechter, 1923: 3-5). 
German botanist Alexander Curt Brade (1881-1971), who was to achieve much 
greater fame in Brazil, arrived in Costa Rica in February 1908 at the invitation of his 
brother, horticulturist Alfred (Alfredo) Brade (1867-1955). Don Alfredo had arrived in 
Costa Rica in 1892, and remained until his death, collaborating with his Costa Rican nat- 
uralist colleagues and corresponding widely with botanical scholars of the time. Al- 
though he made a living as a gardener, flor- 
ist, and landscape architect, he was famously 
generous, and his personal garden was in 
many ways more of a botanical garden than 
a commercial enterprise (see Jiménez, 1959). 
Curt Brade was in Costa Rica for just two 
and a half years, but explored widely during 
that time (see Markgraf, 1973; Windisch, 
2000). The Brade bothers collected orchids 
commercially, but Curt also prepared many 
herbarium specimens, especially of ferns 
(Windisch, 2000). His 912 fern specimens, 
representing 502 species, were later worked 
on by H. Christ, E. Rosenstock, and G. Hier- 
onymus (Pabst, 1967), and yielded 60 new 
species. Schlechter (1923) described 56 new 
species of Orchidaceae from the Costa Rican 
collections of the Brade brothers. 
The activities of Pittier and his asso- 
ciates must also have encouraged the as- Alexander Curt Brade (1881-1971) 
cendancy of native Costa Rican botanists. Courtesy Willdenowia 6: 213. 1971 
