Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica 31 
began a vigorous program of tropical floristics. Williams, who had taught for 11 years 
at the Escuela Agricola Panamericana (EAP) in Honduras and worked with Paul Stand- 
ley in the latter’s retirement there, undertook to complete Standley’s manuscript for the 
Flora of Guatemala and to initiate a new flora for Costa Rica. With grant support from 
the United States National Science Foundation (NSF), both goals were accomplished. 
These grants also funded intensive field work, carried out in cooperation with EAP and 
the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica (Burger, 1971: 2). Williams himself collected 
throughout Central America, and was joined by resident botanists Alfonso Jiménez, of 
the Museo Nacional, and Antonio Molina (b. 1926), of EAP. 
In 1966, William C. Burger (b. 1932), 
an American botanist fresh from four years 
of residence in Ethiopia, was brought on 
board at Field, and immediately took the 
reins of the Costa Rica flora project. Fol- 
lowing several collecting trips of his own, 
Burger published the first part of his Flora 
costaricensis, including a masterful treat- 
ment of the difficult family Piperaceae, in 
1971. Flora costaricensis is a rigorous, semi- 
revisionary effort, with formal keys, formal 
descriptions, generous discussions, and illus- 
trations, the first modern, technical flora at- 
tempted for the country. To date, 11 install- 
ments have appeared, authored by Burger 
and other contributors, covering 51 (mainly 
dicot) families, including such important 
ones as Acanthaceae, Amaranthaceae, Big- 
noniaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fagaceae, Jug- 
landaceae, Lauraceae, Loranthaceae, Mo- 
raceae, Orchidaceae (pro parte), Poaceae, William C. Burger (b. 1932) 
Polygonaceae, Rubiaceae, Scrophularia- Missouri Botanical Garden archives 
ceae, and Urticaceae. In addition to Burger 
himself, numerous other individuals benefited from NSF grants to the Field Museum 
supporting field work in Costa Rica, including Costa Rican botanist Luis Diego 
Gomez (b. 1944) and Americans Roy W. Lent (b. 1931), John Utley (b. 1944), Kath- 
leen Burt-Utley (b. 1944), Valerie J. Dryer, and Kerry Barringer (b. 1954). 
As in the case of all previous such efforts, the publication of Flora costaricensis 
was accompanied by and stimulated continued botanical exploration of Costa Rica, on 
several fronts, further contributing to knowledge of the flora. This activity was also 
spurred by an upturn in the Costa Rican economy, beginning in the 1960s, with re- 
