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March 17, 1948
AIR MAIL

Mr. Rodney Wilcox Jones, President
American Orchid Society
100 Broadview Avenue
New Rochelle, New York

Dear Mr. Jones:

Your kind letter of last summer was not acknowledged earlier because
from it I had the impression that we were to have the pleasure of seeing you
here before this.

Many thanks for your willingness to make some addition to our orchid
collection from yours. Our collection has been badly housed, and I have repeatedly
asked the University authorities for funds to build an additional, more modern
greenhouse. Apparently, we are to have one but construction costs are increasing
so rapidly that my original estimates are out of date, and I fear that what we
will be able to build will hardly take care of the plants we have and hope to re-
ceive from South America.

In the latter connection, I am anxious to go forward with the exploration
which Felix Woytkowski has been carrying on along the upper Peruvian-Ecuadorian
frontier. At the moment he should be in the area northeast of Moyobamba making
selections of Cattleya Rex and what appear to be other species or hybrids of
Cattleya. With herbarium specimens and notes, as well as living plants sent in,
he is making a most important record of the vegetation of the botanically unex-
plored territory east of the Maranon in northern Peru. There is, of course, much
still to be done, especially if, as I hope, we can work across the border in Ecuador.
In terms of intelligence and capacity as a plant collector and general knowledge
of the area, Felix is the only man I know who can undertake the extensive program
that is indicated.

During the last two years that he has been collecting for this Botanical
Garden, I have not had money enough to do much more than pay his collecting expenses
and the cost of transporting collections to California. He has carried on in the
expectation that I would ultimately be able to pay him an adequate salary in addition
to expenses. In the circumstances, I want to raise $5,000 to employ Felix on
a reasonable division of salary and expenses for a year to do the job in northeastern
Peru which only he can do.

Would you be interested in financing this project, either in whole or in
part. The expedition is, and will continue to be, under the auspices of this Univer-
sity so that donations are deductible from income tax. It is not a question of buy-
ing shares in an expedition but of supporting a scientific project of large signifi-
cance. His first objective will be an orchid survey of the area and the Botanical
Garden will turn over to you duplicate living orchid material received here and