30 
OAKES AMES,director. 
BOTANIC CARDEN OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. U.S.A. 
June 19th, 1922. 
My dear Mr, Powell: 
I enclose two photographs of Seleniped - 
ium Chios Reiohb.f. You will notioe the elongated fruits. 
These are said to have been used like vanilla. The plants 
from which the photographs were made came from Ancon Hill. 
The white substance protruding from the pouch of the only 
mature flower la simply cotton-wool which Mr. Killip used 
to preserve the shape of the labellum. I hope the photo¬ 
graphs will make clear what is needed and that some of the 
natives will recognize the plant. 
As you undoubtedly know the typical 
form of Bpidendrum difforme Jacq,, a little brother of 
your #82 (E, chlorocorymbis Schltr. ln©d.), I am writing 
to request that you keep on the look-out for a species that 
resembles it very closely! a species which at present is 
only known from Costa Rica, I refer to E. majale Schltr. 
{ which, of course, is nothing but E. firmum Reichb.f.). 
This species ought to be found in the Chiriqui region, where 
other Costa Rican species spill over into the flora of the 
Isthmus, As I informed you in my letter of the sixteenth 
June, I am working intensively on this group of Epidendrum 
and need many specimens from which to establish the range 
of variation. The fact that you ar© situated in what should 
prove to be an interesting melting-pot for some of the weed- 
orchids that seem to reveloin deviations from the botanical 
