A RARE VANILLA 
BY 
Oakes AMES 
Vanilla Pfaviana Reichenbach filius in Gard. 
Chron. ser. 2, 20 (1888) 230.—l’Orchidophile 8 (1883) 
758 (as V. Pfavana)—Hemsley in Godman & Salvin 
Biol. Cent.-Am. Bot. 4 (1887) 90 (as V. pfaviana)—R. 
A. Rolfe in Journ. Linn. Soc. 82 (1896) 452—Schlechter 
in Beihefte Bot. Centralbl. 86, Abt. 2 (1918) 426. 
REICHENBACH’S DESCRIPTION Of Vanilla Pfaviana 
is typical of the brief botanical characterizations appear- 
ing in the later years of the nineteenth century and is, 
in the absence of the type, quite inconclusive and almost 
useless for purposes of identification. From 1889 (the 
year of Reichenbach’s death) until 1914, VY’. Pfaviana 
remained an obscure species; its identity could not be 
established because the type was inaccessible being a 
part of the Reichenbachian Herbarium in Vienna and 
unapproachable by the terms of Reichenbach’s will dur- 
ing the twenty-five years following his decease. 
In the original description, Reichenbach cited Mex- 
ico as the native country of V’. Pfaviana, saying that it 
was found by one of Mr. Pfau’s collectors, yet, what I 
take to be the type indicates Endres as the collector and 
Costa Rica as the source, the type plant being attributed 
to Pfau under no. 269, as if Pfau had distributed it ina 
series of numbered specimens. 
Among the collections of orchids secured by nu- 
merous expeditions to Mexico since 1883, specimens 
referable to V’. Pfaviana failed to appear prior to 1933 
when plants were collected in the vicinity of Atoyac 
near Vera Cruz; and, notwithstanding the intensive col- 
lections made in Costa Rica in recent years, nothing 
answering to the original description was discovered un- 
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