PREFATORY NOTE. 
In the act of Congress making appropriation for the Department of 
Agriculture for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, provision was 
made for botanical exploration and the collecting of plants in little- 
known districts of America, in connection with the United States 
National Herbarium, and in the appropriation for 1891 additional 
provision was made for the publication of reports. Since those years 
similar provisions have been made annually. As a partial result of 
these appropriations, the Department has issued heretofore six com- 
pleted volumes of a series of publications entitled Contributions from 
the United States National Herbarium. To these the seventh volume 
is now added. 
Through a special provision in the last sundry civil appropriation 
act the publication of the Contributions will be transferred on July 1, 
1902, to the United States National Museum. Subsequent volumes 
will therefore be issued from that institution. 
FREDERICK V. CoVILLE, 
Botanist, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 
Curator, U. S. National Herbarium. | 
WasHINGToN, June 27, 1902. 
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