358 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



1910-11 he obtained from these two collections specimens which were 

 found to represent species previously unknown to science. 



At the present time, passing along the streets of the Canal Zone 

 towns, one notices upon porches or hanging in baskets from near-by 

 trees many orchid plants that are kept for their oddity or their hand- 

 some flowers. They belong to a small number of well-known species, 

 the botanically more interesting but inconspicuous plants being nat- 

 urally without interest for the amateur. It may be noted here that 

 in horticultural circles in England and elsewhere a more or less 

 sharp line is drawn between " orchids " — that is, those with showy or 

 odd flowers, worthy of cultivation — and " botanical orchids," which 

 are of interest only to the technical botanist. 



To Warscewicz we owe the greater part of the earlier data re- 

 garding Panama orchids. He devoted a good deal of time to the ex- 

 ploration of Chiriqui, the region richest in these plants, and probably 

 the most interesting part of Panama for the botanist. In the Canal 

 Zone plants have been gathered by many collectors, Seemann, in 

 1852, published the firet list of Panama orchids, enumerating 104 

 species. During the progress of the Smithsonian Biological Survey 

 of the Canal Zone in 1910-11, a large collection of the group was ob- 

 tained by Pittier and Maxon, not only near the Canal but in Chiriqui 

 and in other parts of Panama not visited previously by collectors. 



THE POWELL ORCHID GARDEN IN PANAMA. 



The major part of our knowledge of the orchids of the Republic 

 of Panama is due to the interest of one man, the result of whose 

 labor is a striking illustration of what may be accomplished by one 

 who has a hobby and follows it intelligently. Mr. C. W. Powell has 

 lived in the Canal Zone since earliest construction days. A man of 

 exceptional breadth of interests, he has always taken a keen interest 

 in general matters relating to natural history, and even in the earli- 

 est days he took more than casual notice of the orchids seen in trips 

 through the jungles. From time to time he formed small collections 

 of living plants, some of which he presented to friends, while others 

 were lost by accident. He often laments the fact that he was not 

 then interested in technical classification of the plants, since in the 

 early days, before the forests had been scoured by other collectors 

 and before the virgin forest had been cut, there were doubtless 

 many species that are now extinct and will never be Icnown to 

 science. 



About 10 years ago Mr, Powell became seriously interested in 

 orchids, and determined to assemble a complete collection of Panama 

 species. Unfamiliar with the literature and without relations with 

 specialists upon the group, his work was attended by difficulties, but 



