V 
leb. 3, 1946. 
Mr. C. K. Rankester. 
Las Concavas, Cartago, Costa Kica. 
Lear Mr. Lanxester: 
Your letter of January 29th has just arrived. 
Thank you very much for commending my little imroductory article 
about orchids for the Orchid Bulletin. It is always rather difficult 
to reduce a large subject to its lowest terras and make it intelli¬ 
gible to the vast number of ’’lay" readers, ^nd to receive words of 
praise from an experienced orchidoiogist like you is indeed satis¬ 
fying. 
The African trip which you mention must have been very interest¬ 
ing, but to find oneself in an entirely strange flora must be a bit 
disconcerting, to say the least. 
The little pleurothalloid orchid which you naturally took for 
that amazingly diverse genus Pleurothallis, belongs to Schleohter's 
new genus xeostaea nearly related toPpleurothallis but with a complex 
floral structure. It appears to be referable to A. pleurothalloides, 
of which we lacked a specimen in our herbarium. We have several col¬ 
lections of A* costaricensis, the type species. 
It was also a welcome addition to have an additional flower of 
Kpidendrum pseudepidendrum of which we have several Skutch collections^ 
Again thanking you for your appreciation, and wishing you a 
prosperous hew Year, I am 
Cordially yours, 
Charles Schweinfurth 
Research fellow in Botany, Harvard University. 
