The truth is, one does not see in dried specimens all those subtle 
distinctions that are so evident in the living plant when it is viewed 
from the horticultural point of appraisal. 
I have reason to be3.leva that the Masdevallia you sent to me as a 
specimen of M. costa ricensis, is simply a. Tonduzia tebitr. It agrees 
with the original description, but it doe? not a.gre~ with the description 
of M. cos ter leans is . I have *ust had dried specimens p rom A1faro. They 
work out to be A. Tonduzii. 
Nov, that I have a fe months for recreation, I thin’- I shall ass-mbl 
the new species of Costa ff can orchids arid publish another number of Sch" 
Orch. 
Have' you any eooei; Morally good films *" o $ v’hlch to make lantern 
slides? This question Is prompted by the thought that I must get ready 
some interesting illusion ii'u for ^he lost uro s that eom <9 next year. 
I as not saying anything about cameras in this letter. The thing 
you returned to me under the name of camera hardly deeerves the name. I* 
I should hand it to an expert repairer and ask him to put it in order he 
might ask me what part o; an automobile wreak it belonged to. When I des¬ 
cribed its condition the other day, the man at the nhotogrphic supply 
shoo said to me, n I tr.iak it r ouia be cheaper to buy a new machine T ’ . Just 
as the news came to us that the World War was over, the truck men and milk 
men tied tin cans to the rear of their automobiles and the early mprning 
hours char-'" ized by the bur. ing o tin cans ever the paved streets I 
° r the city. Perhaps you have recently signed a peace in Costa Rica after 
a revolution and to celebrate the event you dragged the so-called camera 
up Irazu behinfd a horse. One never can tell. 
With the best of good wishes, 
