SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
June 28, 1921, 
Mr. Oakes Ames, 
North Saston, Massachusetts. 
Dear Mr. Ames: 
Your letter of June 20 is certainly very pleasing to 
me, for I had feared that you would not he willing to 
undertake the task of writing up the Central American or¬ 
chids . Your interest in this matter is very deeply appre¬ 
ciated, for I know that your treatment of the family will 
add most materially to the usefulness of the flora. We 
shall certainly assist in every way that we can by send¬ 
ing on material or by any other means that may be feasible. 
We shall be glad to forward the specimens at whatever time 
is most satisfactory to you, and in such quantity as may 
seem most suitable to you. There are likely to be a good 
many specimens of interest among the large amount of un¬ 
named material which has been gradually accumulating. 
Inclosed is a carbon copy (which need not be returned) 
of my treatment of the genus Scleria and also a general 
memorandum with regard to the style of the flora. In 
writing up the orchids you should, of course, aside from 
the adoption of the general form of the rest of the work, 
follow whatever plan may seem most satisfactory to you, 
for whatever you may do in the matter will be quite agree¬ 
able to me. 
I shall certainly get an extra set of such orchids as 
I may find in Salvador. I doubt if the number of species 
occurring there is very large for the mountains do not 
reach a great altitude and there are none of the wet forests 
which have yielded most of the orchids reported from Guate¬ 
mala and Costa Rica. There must, however, be a much larger 
number of species than has been reported from Salvador up 
to the present time. 
Sincerely yours 
Paul C. Standley 
Assistant Curator, 
Division of Plants 
(Inclosures) 
