The success of this transatlantic migration is clearly written in 

 the pages of horticulture: Cypridedium Amesianum, Laelia 

 Amesiana, Pha/aenopsis, F. L. Ames, Laelia anceps var. Amesi- 

 ana, Luisia Amesiana, to mention a few. All of these orchids 

 commemorate the Honorable Frederick Lothrop Ames of North 

 Easton, Massachusetts: "a zealous cultivator", ..."a liberal 

 patron of horticulture and the possessor of one of the finest 

 collections of orchids in North America", writes Reichenbach. 

 However, orchids were grown not only by Frederick, but also by 

 other members of the Ames family, including his cousin, Oliver, 

 Governor of Massachusetts, 1886-88. Oakes Ames, son of 

 Oliver, was born into such an environment in 1874. 



Oakes's interest in plants, wild flowers and orchids, starting in 

 his childhood, has been told many times in various biographical 

 sketches. His total commitment to the scientific study of orchids, 

 however, took place on October 20, 1898, when he prepared his 

 first scientific description and drawings to be published nine 

 days later as Catasetum arachnoides Ames in the American 

 gardening. The result was exciting. Oakes Ames discovered 

 that he could fly. . .and for his enthusiasm only the sky was the 

 limit. 



Thus, in 1899, the Ames Botanical Laboratory was estab- 

 lished, according to unpublished notes by Professor Ames, for 

 the study of botanical problems and for original research. The 

 nucleus of this new institution was a carefully assembled collec- 

 tion of orchid specimens. As a matter of fact, the preparation of 

 an orchid herbarium had been started by Oakes Ames in 1889, 

 when he was only 15 years old. At that time, in addition to 

 samples of native orchids, he painstakingly prepared pressings 

 of single flowers of exotic orchids which he collected from the 

 greenhouses of his father and his father's cousin, as well as from 

 other orchid collections, such as the W. W. Lunt collection or 

 those of Henry Graves in Orange, New Jersey. In 1899, the 

 orchid herbarium began to grow rapidly through the active pur- 

 chase of specimens as well as through material received for iden- 

 tification, especially from the Bureau of Science in Manila, the 

 Philippines. 



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