SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
September 14, 1921. 
Mr. Oakes Ames, 
ITorth Easton, Massachusetts. 
Dear Mr. Ames: 
Upon return from a short vacation spent partly in the 
White Mountains of New Hampshire, I found your letter of 
August 22. I am very glad indeed to hear that you are pro¬ 
gressing so well with the orchids of Central America. They 
must "be a most difficult group and furnish greater difficul¬ 
ties in their treatment than the other families of Central 
American plants. If we can he of any assistance in the work 
we certainlj'’ shall he glad of the privilege of doing so . 
Mr. Johnson’s orchids were, I "believe, forwarded some time 
ago. We have a partial set of duplicates of his collections. 
It is unfortunate that he was not able to remain longer in 
Guatemala for his collections,in other groups at least, are 
of exceptional interest. 
When I am in Salvador this winter I shall try to make 
a special effort to obtain as many orchids as possible. 
Mr. A. Tcnduz is now collecting in Guatemala and it may be 
that if you are not already in correspondence with him you 
might obtain special material of the orchids by writing di¬ 
rectly to him/ I suspect that he has been sending his speci¬ 
mens of the group to Schlechter. His address is Direccion 
General de Agricultura, Guatemala City, Guatemala. The only 
person in Costa Rica of whom I know at the present time, who 
is likely to do very much in the way of collections, is Mr* 
Oton Jimenez. He, also, has sent collections to Schlechter, 
but he has promised to send us a duplicate set of his material 
which I expect will arrive before long. It would be a good 
thing, I believe, if you would write directly to him also, 
for he is very obliging and would probabljr be glad to send 
you specimens. His address is San Jose, Costa Rica. Unfor¬ 
tunately, he does not have a great deal of spare time for 
botanical collecting. 
Last week we received a visit from a Mr. H, A. V . Smith 
of the Canal Zone. He visited this office especially to 
give us information concerning Mr* 0. W, Powell, Balboa, Canal 
Zone. Mr. Powell, he states, is a most enthusiastic collector 
