Orchids of Peru

Orchids of Peru is a scholarly work by Charles Schweinfurth of the Ames Orchid Herbarium at Harvard University. Famed for his lifetime of devotion to the Orchidaceae, Harvardman Schweinfurth has followed systematic treatment of his mentor, Oakes Ames, greatest American orchidologist. The key to the genera (26 all together) follows the framework proposed by German taxonomist R. Schlecter, as it is the most workable of the systems suggested up to the present time. The well-chosen pen-and-ink drawings are contributions of some of America’s leading orchid illustrators—G. Dillon, B. Ames, D. March, D. Tibbits, E. Smith, and others. This is a definitive work on one aspect of Andean flora, yet in the words of the author “it is a starting point for work on the floras of neighboring countries.” Interesting to studious hobbyists are descriptions in Phragmipedium, Vanilla, and Sobralia, large-flowered orchid genera familiar to serious collectors of living plants. This is but one publication in the long line of scholarly works on orchids that is continually coming from the Ames Orchid Herbarium.