ORCHID COLLECTING — STANDLEY 359 



he assembled living plants in his garden and formed a good library 

 of publications upon orchids. Study of this literature indicated 

 that he had many plants not described in current works. Finally 

 correspondence was established with the English orchidologist, 

 Rolfe, and there was prepared for his study a series of herbarium 

 specimens of the plants as they bloomed ; but Rolfe died soon after- 

 ward, without having had an opportunity to study the collection. 

 Still later another herbarium collection was prepared, and entrusted 

 for determination to the well-known orchidologist, Schlechter, of 

 Berlin, who published in 1922 a pamphlet of 95 pages enumerating 

 the PoAvell orchids, which consisted of 184 species, no less than 75 

 of which were described as new to science. 



In more recent years Mr. Powell has forwarded his collection for 

 identification to Mr. Oakes Ames, the most eminent American 

 authority upon this difficult group, and the number of species has 

 increased, until now it amounts to 341. There can scarcely be for 

 any tropical country a record of one person who has contributed so 

 much to the knowledge of the orchid flora, or who has assembled so 

 complete a representation of the group. 



The quality of the herbarium specimens prepared by Mr. Powell 

 deserves more than passing mention. Years of experience, through 

 which the best methods have been discovered, combined with at- 

 tention to details such as other collectors rarely attain, have enabled 

 him to make specimens which are unsurpassed. The color of the 

 flowers is kept perfectly in most cases, and the whole plant pre- 

 serves its natural aspect. Such results are the more remarkable 

 with a group in which it is extremely difficult to make satisfactory 

 specimens, the plants often having fleshy parts that yield up their 

 moisture only after stubborn resistance. It is very largely because 

 of the difficulty of preparing good specimens that so comparatively 

 small a number of orchids have been collected in explored portions 

 of Central America, a neglect that has extended to many other 

 groups of monocotyledonous plants of a similar nature. It is only 

 by the use of artificial heat that good herbarium specimens of 

 orchids and other fleshy plants can be prepared in tropical regions. 

 The Powell orchid garden at Balboa is one of the most interest- 

 ing sights of the Canal Zone, and botanically by far the most re- 

 markable thing to be seen there. It is something unique in tropical 

 America, if not in the whole world. 



The garden, situated on the lower slopes of Ancon Hill, is sur- 

 rounded by a wire-netting fence 8 feet high, covered with vines, 

 and the same netting with its curtain of vines continues overhead. 

 Various climbing plants are used for covering the netting, and by 

 .pruning them from time to time the optimum amount of shade or 

 sunlight is obtained. 



