SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
April 3, 1926. 
Mr. Oakes Ames, 
355 Commonwealth Avenue, 
Boston, Massachusetts. 
Bear Mr. Ames: 
It is uncertain to me whether you have yet 
returned to Boston from your West Indian trip, hut- 1 judge 
from -our letter of the last of February, aidress S to 
Moron' that probably you hare. I hope you may have ha 
an Xeable Ini hefteflcial trip. There can surely be 
nothing more restful than a sea voyage, for one s actiti- 
4-4** a arp A 0C 1 (3 6 s d 1 "^ 1*0 S "tX 1C d • . 
I Returned to" Washington last Sunday March 28 leaving 
Costa Rica March 19, and coming by way of Puerto Casti , 
Honduras, Havana, and New Orleans. i J t geason 
via New York, the most convenient port, but at this season 
of the year it is almost impossible to secure accomodations 
unon the larger steamers. _ ,., 
As It is! I am glad that I came back the 1 “y’much 
for I got to see two places new to me. * +L + 
the looks of Puerto Castilla, and I think it likely that 
the next trip 1 attempt to Central America, probably at the 
pnd of 1927 will be to that region. One can go now eighty 
miles Into the interior by railload. At the end of the line 
is a desert. Deserts are not common In Central America, 
only other one" being that of Z.acapa in Ouafemala. Since 
no collecting has ever been done in this one, it see* 
likely thatthere are a lot of endemic species to be found 
r 5 At rate we need the plants from onduras, for 
there* Is no X^oointry of Central America ffbm which we 
haW The trip to Costa Rica resulted satisfactorily in nearly 
everv respect. The collections are now safe here in Aash- 
irp-ton. They total over 11,700 numbers, nearly all f 
Colla Rica! 7 The other time I brought eight thousand num- 
vp r „ from Costa Rica, but also about 7000 from Panama. 
I think I should perhaps rather have this year ^collection 
that that of the other trip. Certainly it i~ lik y 
+ s „ rnuch larger rumber of new species. 
Of orchids I have about 2060 numbers, considerably 
more”han last time. For the first two months I was In 
Co^ta Rica I did not do so very well with orchids, but 
during the last sir weeks, spent in the central part o- ^ 
tn^ro^r^Sso! 0 ™? I had r s P plnt y ;il of the time in central 
CoetaRioa I should probably have about 3500 orchid num¬ 
bers but I am not altogether sorry that I spent some of 
the 8 1ime that I did in Sutlylng places. You can never 
tell what a region is like until you go and • 
6 and investigate 
