Care of the Collections— Botany 



Associate Curator Smith spent considerable time in reorganizing 

 the herbarium of vascular plants. A large amount of previously- 

 unidentified but mounted material has been filed with the proper 

 families, unmounted specimens are being checked to find which 

 specimens remain to be mounted for the herbarium, and duplicate 

 specimens are being processed for distribution on an exchange basis. 

 Under Dr. Smith's supervision, Frank J. Reid, student assistant, 

 checked during the summer months all Pringle material in the her- 

 barium so that duplicates in this collection could be removed and 

 specimens missing in our collection added. Miss Phyllis I. Moreen, 

 student assistant, cleaned and refiled the entire fruit collection. 

 Gymnosperms are being segregated from angiosperms, and all Illi- 

 nois specimens are being interfiled in the general collection. 



In April a new plastic mounting-technique was initiated, which 

 insures a tighter bonding of the specimens to the mounting paper 

 and should reduce the amount of repair needed through the years. 

 With this technique, production of mounted specimens for individ- 

 ual mounters more than doubled. A total of 23,481 plants was 

 mounted and added to the herbarium of vascular plants. Mount- 

 ing was done by Mrs. Ann Bigelow, Miss Olive Doig, and Miss Alice 

 Middleton and, for part of the year, by Kent Cherry, Miss Kath- 

 erine Sanford, and Miss Adrienne Watkins (student assistants) and 

 by Miss Mary E. Adams and Miss Susanne G. Fried (Antioch Col- 

 lege students). Additional aid in plant mounting was given by 

 Girl Scouts as their Museum Aid Project, one group from Du Page 

 County (Mrs. E. C. Gollan, Leader, Downers Grove) completing 

 their project that was begun in 1958 and another group from south 

 Cook County (Mrs. F. J. Vodvarka, Leader, Homewood) com- 

 pleting their project in March. 



Mrs. Jennie Pletinckx and Custodian Reich, assisted during 

 part of the year by Miss Fried, filed, checked, and repaired speci- 

 mens. Nils Siegbahn packed materials for shipment, and Robert 

 Yule prepared seed packets and specimen papers. A total of 1,417 

 vascular plants was sent out in exchange. 



Miss Middleton repaired 1,530 specimens of cryptogams for the 

 general collection, and Mrs. Effie M. Schugman filed specimens. 

 A total of 46 wood specimens was sent out in exchange. Curator 

 Thieret was assisted in the care of the wood, seed, and economic 

 collections for part of the year by Mrs. Bigelow and Richard H. 

 Wood, Jr. (Antioch College student). Work on restoration of the 

 type-photograph collection was almost completed by Assistant J. S. 



56 



