NORTH EASTON, MASS. 
July 15, 1933. 
mg 
ogy 
him 
U1K, 
in h 
dear Mr, Edwards$ 
Lr. ' arbour has just returned from hie fish- 
trip. * sav. him yesterday at the Mu a euro of Comparative Zool- 
and asked him about the sample collection you had sent in for 
t j0 examine. He was not at all enthusistic about the enecifigr-ns 
l gathered from his remarks that he would not be interested 
.ving you colxeet for the Museum, 1 am sorry about this, be¬ 
cause I had hoped that you might be of service to the Museum while 
picking up a little more money for your efforts. However, in one 
the Arboretum is concerned, 
way I think it is all for the best where 
because 1 doubt that you could give your attention tc a multiplicity 
Oj. interests and make plant collections of the standsrd that compels 
the interest of a first-magnitude institution, Mr, Barbour, by the 
way, has a collectoi in Honduras at the present time. He is collect¬ 
ing near Trujillo, I understand, and I take it is a trained field 
man. It i highly probable that you might meet him if you decide to 
visit the coastal regions, I did not get his name, but the Fruit 
Comany oificials atlorto Catill; would probably be able to tell you 
something about him, I should not advise anybody to go to Truxillo 
for orchids, however, because it is a wind swept region and the 
ing air seems_ to discourage epiphytes. Pehaps if one got into the 
mountains back of the foot hills that rise from the coast baekof 
Tuxillo, orchids and other good things might be found, I only had 
time tc study the woods near the town and my press was empty when I 
returned to my base, I did not study the rain fall condition in 
that region. Perhaps the records would show some localities to be 
more favored than others. At Tela I did study rainfall and I found 
that there was a decided influence on orchid vegetation where the 
rainfall was heaviest. This is one reason why coastal lowlands are 
usually disappointing to the orchid collector. It is in the mountains 
and at high altitudes that orchids thrive best and may be expected 
to occur in quantity as to plants and species. The orchi> s of the 
1 ovV lying lands near the Atlantic coast usually contain orchid weeds, 
that ie. the species that one may expect to meet from Central America 
to Brasil, ndemisa is usually associated with mountain valleys 
where the rainfall stimulates a rich vegetation, ouch, valleys, as 
is very true of Costa Eica, may each one support species that are 
2 to a particular valley or rare elsewhere. Mountains that 
drenched during many days of the year may be orchid 
barrens. If is surprising what a x*ich feast for the orchid 
a man like 0, H, Lankastar will bring back from a few days 
the the sides of the great volcanoes of Costa Pica, And 
coastal country round Li won is most disappointing. This 
tna ■- -’liere you x ound Chysis aurea, Odontoglossum illiamsianum 
nacaena spectabilis the conditions foi’ orchids must be 
promising proportions. 
dry- 
ei tlier mdemi; 
are not cloud 
student 
spnnt on 
yet, the 
reminds me 
and 
approaching 
Yours sincerely. 
