Mr. Oakes Ames-2. 
collecting in a good orchid country where I might atone 
for xny very poor record of last year. I do not have 
much information about the Tegucigalpa region, but it 
should be much better than Salvador, and I suspect that 
the flora is very different. The central plateau is 
over 3,000 feet high, and the mountains everywhere rise 
much higher. The region has been described to me by 
Central w >.merloans as abounding in great canyons, and 
since little of the land is under cultivation there 
ought to be plenty of virgin forest. There are many 
pine forests, in the country, and I suspect that the 
vegetation is much like that about Guatemala City. It 
can not be very moist but must be much less arid than 
Salvador. 
I have been rather favorably inclined toward Costa 
Rica because the work there would be much easier than 
anywhere else, since transportation is comparatively 
easy, and the country is the most advanced of all Cen¬ 
tral America. Honduras, on the other hand, is the most 
backward country, and the facilities for travel are ex¬ 
ceedingly poor. It is easy to get from Amapala, where 
I was last year, up to Tegucigalpa, for there is a fine 
automobile road. The trip to Amapala is a tedious one, 
and I estimated the other day that in going there it is 
necessary to have your baggage handled thirteen times l 
The only practicable route, with a large collecting out¬ 
fit, is across Guatemala, then taking the steamer down 
to Amapala. I should much like to make the trip from 
Tela to Tegucigalpa, collecting along the way, for then 
I believe it would be possible to get more interesting 
material, and at least to cross a region wholly unknown 
botanically . That would be quite feasible if I had to 
make only one set of plants, but when making three sets 
of specimens, one for* the Gray Herbarium and one for 
Hew York, it is necessary to take such a large quantity 
of driers and other material that it can not well be 
transported on muleback. 
I should much like to hear what your views are with 
regard to the respective merits of Costa Rica and Hon¬ 
duras, since you were so kind as to offer to assist in 
work in the former country. I know that I should enjoy 
tbs work in Costa Bica more, since I have various friends 
there who would facilitate it in every way possible, but 
there is always a peculiar attraction about work in an 
unknown region like Honduras. 
