It has been said repeatedly that no one becomes a true bota- 

 nist, unless he be born with such a charisma. In retrospect, we 

 may say that the young Oakes Ames not only reflected the marks 

 of a true botanist but was obviously destined to stand as a 

 symbol and inspiration for all future students of orchidology. 

 Although as a member of the faculty, he had access to the rich 

 botanical library of Harvard University, Ames knew the im- 

 mense advantage of owning a personal reference library. On 

 April 15, 1901, he noted in his journal: "If we really wish to 

 make a study of orchids, we ought to begin with the earliest 

 records, the old herbals, for example." Sparing neither effort nor 

 zeal, Oakes worked steadily to build and enlarge the foundation 

 as well as the structure of his orchidological realm. 



By 1904, the orchid collection had grown to a rather impres- 

 sive size, close to 10,000 sheets. An official count was made in 

 September of that year through the application of a consecutive 

 numbering system within an inscription of "herbarium — oakes 

 ames", a system still in use today. Since the herbarium was con- 

 sidered by Ames primarily as a working tool, it became a deposi- 

 tory of much and varied information on orchid species in 

 addition to the storage of dried specimens. Included were origi- 

 nal descriptions, photographs, drawings of floral details, life size 

 copies of type-specimens, published plates and similar docu- 

 ments which would be of use for identification purposes. 



In 1905, while Ames was on vacation, his assistant. Dr. Leav- 

 itt, answered in his name a letter which came from the Bureau 

 of Science in Manila asking him to write up the orchid part of a 

 projected flora of the Philippines. Upon his return, Ames was 

 dumfounded by the colossal task that had been undertaken in 

 his name, for his information of the Philippine orchids was 

 indeed pitifully inadequate. His inner strength and clear vision 

 found him literally within 24 hours on board the Steamship 

 Saxonia in the company of two of his assistants, Dr. Leavitt and 

 Mr. Eaton, heading for Europe to study and to photograph type 

 material of Philippine orchids preserved in the herbaria of the 

 British Museum of Natural History, the Royal Botanical Gar- 

 dens, Kew and Rijksherbarium of Leiden. 



28 



