Jan. 1935 Annual Report of the Director 187 



Washington, D.C., and it is consulted especially by botanists of the 

 numerous large universities within a few hundred miles of Chicago. 



The preparation and determination of the extensive plant collec- 

 tions received during the year have fully occupied the time of the 

 Herbarium staff. Through the employment during the year of a 

 number of workers furnished by the Illinois Emergency Relief 

 Commission, and, in the early months, of federal Civil Works Service 

 assignees, it was possible to perform a large amount of clerical and 

 other work that otherwise could not have been undertaken. Most 

 important, it has been possible to mount and add to the Herbarium 

 more than 60,000 sheets of specimens, an exceptionally high number 

 in a single year for any herbarium in the world. Many collections 

 of plants that had remained for years in storage were mounted during 

 1934, and it is expected that if similar assistance is continued, it 

 will be possible to add to the Herbarium during the coming year 

 all the stored collections, some of them of great scientific value. 



There were submitted to the Herbarium for study and determina- 

 tion 190 lots of plants, comprising 13,285 specimens. Of these, 64 

 lots, consisting of 4,354 specimens, were named and returned to 

 the senders, while 126 lots, amounting to 8,931 specimens, were 

 retained by the Museum. In addition, there were determined, but 

 not preserved for the collections, many plants from the Chicago 

 region and elsewhere, brought to the Museum by visitors, teachers, 

 and students, or forwarded by mail. Also, there were answered 

 many inquiries by mail and telephone, requiring diverse information 

 upon botanical subjects. 



Through the courtesy of the Department of Botany of the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago, Assistant Curator Llewelyn Williams was afforded 

 special facilities for the study of the woods of the family Caryo- 

 caraceae. This is a small group of tropical trees native in Central 

 and South America, upon which he is engaged in research. 



Associate Curator Paul C. Standley published eleven papers 

 based more or less directlj?^ upon the Herbarium collections, several 

 of them, dealing with American trees, in Tropical Woods. His most 

 important publication consisted of 142 pages of descriptions of 

 Rubiaceae, published in North American Flora, in continuation of 

 former parts of the flora treating of the same family. He prepared 

 also a leaflet. Common Weeds, issued by Field Museum as No. 17 

 of the Botanical Series of Leaflets. Assistant Curator J. Francis 

 Macbride published in Candollea, issued by the Conservatory and 

 Botanic Garden of Geneva, a paper of 57 pages devoted chiefly 



