PREFACE. 
The accompanying paper by A. S. Hitchcock, Systematic Agrostol- 
ogist of the United States Department of Agriculture, entitled Cata- 
logue of the Grasses of Cuba, is the result of an exhaustive study of 
the material in the United States National Herbarium and in the 
herbarium of the Estacién Central Agronémica de Cuba. It was 
chiefly through the efforts of Mr. Carl F. Baker, who obtained large 
collections in Cuba, that the specimens were made accessible to Mr. 
Hitchcock. It is hoped that this paper will be followed by similar 
ones upon other groups. 
J. N. Ross, 
Acting Curator. 
Ill 
