SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
July 8, 1924. 
Mr. Oakes Ames, 
355 Commonwealth Avenue, 
Boston, Massachusetts. 
Bear Mr. Ames: 
Today we started to you by express a box con¬ 
taining the orchid collection that I obtained in Costa Rica 
this year. The material forwarded consists'""’of two lots: (1) 
the numbers of which there was. sufficient material for divis¬ 
ion, and (2) those which it did not seem possible to divide. 
The packages of the latter are marked "unicates" and will be 
easily recognized. 
In the case of the unicates, you are, of course, at liberty 
to dispose of them as may seem desirable, retaining all or any 
part of them. There must be among these a good many species 
repeated, and in case there should be more than you require for 
your own herbarium, we should be very glad to have them here. 
The specimens in our own set of these orchids are much 
the same as those we are now forwarding, although in some in¬ 
stances we have retained only fragmentary material. In case 
you should wish to examine any or all of our portion of the 
collection, we shall be glad to forward it for study, although 
I believe that in most cases it would not help greatly in the 
identification. Our material has not been mounted yet, for 
it seems better to hold some of the specimens until we find 
whether they are in condition for determination. 
I am very anxious to learn what your impressions will be 
after examination of the collection. Please do not hesitate 
to give your frankest opinion of it, for I should like to have 
your views for use in case I have an opportunity to make further 
collections of orchids. There are some quite sterile specimens 
that were preserved because their foliage seemed especially 
distinctive. In a few cases I find color notes with regard to 
the flowers, when I have not been able to locate the flowers 
themselves among the dried materiall 
If it is convenient for you to furnish the determinations 
of the more common species in advance of a full report, we should 
appreciate having them, so that our set may be placed in the 
herbarium. I should like, also, to use the hames of some of 
the species in various publications that I have in mind. 
Today I began labeling the collection of plants from Pan¬ 
ama, and the orchids will be forwarded when available. They 
are not numerous, however, and it is not likely that there is 
anything of interest among them, at least Mr. Powell did not 
seem to think that there was. 
In the near future I hope to be able to begin preparation 
of a semi-popular report upon the flora of the Canal Zone* It 
is probable that I may make another visit to the Zone, probably 
about a year from now, in order to fill gaps in the data. If 
