Such procedure has been fundamental to the develop- 
ment and expansion of systematic botany in general and 
to orchidology in particular, to the work of Oakes Ames 
no less than to his predecessors, from Linnaeus onwards; 
but it now seems so commonplace and self-evident that 
only by comparison with the work of Linnaeus’s prede- 
cessors does its originality become manifest. Linnaeus 
distinguished in the Species Plantarum (1758) only 7 
genera and 62 species out of the 700 or so genera and 
20,000 or so species of Orchidaceae now known and, by 
the end of his life, had become acquainted with only 107 
or so genera. Nevertheless, his treatment of these few 
exemplified the methods which, with due modification, 
have made possible the recording of the many. Thus, in 
the works of Linnaeus lay the potentialities of the studies 
in orchidology so honourably associated with Ames and 
the Botanical Museum of Harvard University. 
[ 84 ] 
ECONOMIC BOTANY LIBRARY 
OF OAKES AMES 
HARVARD BOTANICAL MUSEUM 
