SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
May 13, 1924. 
Mr. Oake s Ame s, 
Boston, Massachusetts. 
Bear Mr. Ames: 
It Is now a couple of weeks since I returned 
to Washington from Central America. I have delayed wri¬ 
ting to you because of the fact that there were so many 
things that I wanted to mention that I dreaded the task; 
but I might as well begin now as later. I should like 
very much to have the opportunity of talking to you per¬ 
sonally, for it would be so much easier, but it is not 
probable that I shall be in Boston in the near future. 
I should like to have seen the orchid exhibition there Isst- 
week. Mrs. Walcott was speaking to me about it today, 
and Mr. Powell was discussing it when I was in Panama 
last. 
The Central American trip was most successful in 
every respect, at least so far as I am concerned. The 
collections are now all here in Washington, which is 
always a relief, since there is sufficient danger of 
losing them in shipment. I hope to have the labels printed 
in about a couple of weeks, and then I shall prepare im¬ 
mediately the orchids for shipment to you, at least those 
from Costa Rida. There are not very many from Panama, 
and Ido not believe they are- of any importance, so I may 
not make a special effort to separate them immediately. 
Of the Costa Rican orchids there are about 1500 
numbers. As I stated before, there are good, bad, and 
indifferent, but I hope there may be something of value 
among them. Among so many, it seems that there must 
be. I presume that there are always plenty of orchids 
in flower in Costa Rica, and many of them must have def¬ 
inite blooming periods. Some of the most abundant ones 
I never found with either flowers or fruit. I visited 
La Palma several times, and always found there something 
new in flower. 
La Palma is probably the best region that I visited, 
and Ido not believe that it v/ould be possible to exhaust 
the orchids there in a good many years. Their variety is 
bewildering, and every tree is loaded with them. La Palma 
has the advantage of being within easy reach of San Jose, 
and it is remarkable that it has not been more thoroughly 
collected. Among the other plants I found many interesting 
things there, and some of the plants with most showy 
flowers seem to represent undeseribed species. It is hard 
to see how earlier collectors could have missed them. 
Another locality which is fully as good, and perhaps 
better, since it has not been visited, or scarcely so , 
