In 1944, I collected for a week at Araracuara, Mar- 
tius’ westernmost station in the Amazon and the type 
locality for a large number of endemics, some of which, 
like Schoenocephalium Martianum, had never subse- 
quently been found. I found this species to be one of the 
dominant plants on the high, flat savannah of white sand 
at the picturesque chasm called ‘‘Angostura.’’ Unfortu- 
nately, my collections of the plant from that trip were 
lost in an aeroplane accident. 
In December 1951, Dr. Garcia- Barriga and I spent an 
afternoon at Araracuara whilst emergency repairs were 
being made on our aeroplane. We were able to make an 
interesting collection of about fifty numbers which will 
be reported later. Amongst these was an ample topo- 
typical collection of Schoenocephalium Martianum. 
As we stepped off the aeroplane at the prison colony 
at Araracuara, we saw, near the shore, a small portable 
altar set up by visiting clerics for Christmas. This altar 
was extravagantly decorated with the beautiful pink-red 
wax-like inflorescences of Schoenocephalium Martianum, 
one of the rarest plants of the world! 
A number of months later, we were astonished to find 
a florist shop in Bogota with a window full of Schoeno- 
cephalium Martianum heads. It appears that a lucrative 
commerce has grown up, Every time a Colombian gov- 
ernment flight goes to the prison colony at Araracuara 
to relieve the guards, the returning police bring back 
enormous bundles of the long-lasting heads for sale to 
florists in the nation’s capital under the common name 
estrellitas del sur (‘little stars from the south’’). The 
retail price in Bogota in January 1953 was three pesos 
a dozen (approximately $1.20 in U.S. money). 
I collected seed of Schoenocephalium Martianum and 
sent it to the Bureau of Plant Industry of the United 
States Department of Agriculture and the Royal Botanic 
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