Powells' Horticultural Garden 
O RC H I DS O N L-Y 
Balboa, Canal Zone, Panama 
BALBOA, C. Z., PANAMA_ _ J92 
3 
You must remember also that at the time I was unacquainted with you or with your 
facilities. Xhese I think sufficient to justify me in my conclusions. 
However, as I promised Dr Sohleohter to send him my complete specimens I feel 
obligated to do so; this does not in any maimer preclude mjr sending specimens to you, 
but it does give him priority right of determination and naming. 
I most heartily agree with you as to the multiplication of genus and species, 
as practiced by the Botanists in the past. I do not believe that every little dif¬ 
ference should be distinctively named. Shere has been so much confusion because of 
this, that one of my first instructions to Dr Schlechter was along these lines and 
specifically-" I am building up this garden for the good of the public, because 
there is not and never has been a botanical garden in Panama; and, also,because I 
love flowers and the science of botany. Hence I wish determinations to be just right 
in every particular. I wish them to be so correct that they will be the type or 
standard from which all Panama Orchids will be named in the future". 
I am not striving to find new species but am striving to collect together 
&.-LL. the Panama species in one garden, where they can be seen growing and can 
be studied in the living state by any one so desiring. You can readily understand 
that the absolute necessity point had been reched - with 200 to 225 Panama species, 
largely unnamed, with many tentatively named- that I was compelled to avail iqyself 
of the first reliable source from which to get reliable names. Plant names are 
essential in order to distinguish them, for systematic study, and to answer the many 
questions asked by visitors. Numbers are fairly well for record work, but they fall 
far short of names. Even now, I may be shown a plant and asked its name and 1 will 
answer promptly "that is No —, but frequently yet have to refer to records for names. 
This is because I used numbers so long that they were so learned and became identified 
with the plants. 
