BOTANICAL MUSEUM OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
Oxford Street 
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts 
June 4, 1954. 
Dr. Leslie A. Garay, 
University of Toronto, 
Toronto, Canada. 
Dear Sir: 
For some time now, I have been planning to write the 
orchids of Colombia, but until recently I have not 
been in a position to permit myself to make definite 
plans to that end. Now that I shall have the time and 
facilities at the Ames Herbarium to do such a long 
range task, I have planned to begin. 
Recently — in fact, only yesterday —, I Learned that 
you have borrowed the Colombian material from Washing¬ 
ton. I had no idea that you were committed to do the 
orchids of Colombia, nor did Mr. Schweinfurth know of 
it. I want to write and ask you what your plans are. 
If you have not started, would it be possible for you 
to shift to the orchids of Ecuador or Venezuela, both 
of which need doing and both of which are, of course, 
allied to the Colombian orchid flora? 
I ask you this for several reasons. I have just termi¬ 
nated 18 years of active field work in Colombia and 
have a good knowledge of the terrain and the general 
picture of the orchids there. Furthermore, a number of 
Colombian scientists and amateurs have asked me to under¬ 
take this work. If I dowork on the orchids, the logical 
course would be to work on those orchids from the area 
with which I am most familiar. 
As I say, I do not know how far you have gotten into 
the orchiAs of Colombia, but I would appreciate hearing 
from you and would be grateful for your consideration 
of my suggestion in this letter. 
