the governmental requirements, condi- 

 tions to be expected, equipment needed, 

 and other useful information based on 

 his extensive experience in that country. 



Weeds 



A, 



l n exhibit of more than 40 water 

 colors by Mary Virginia Roberts, a San 

 Francisco artist who specializes in the 

 painting of weeds, is on display at the 

 Museum through September. 



John Millar, the Museum's Curator 

 Emeritus of Botany, has selected the 

 paintings for the new exhibit. Accord- 

 ing to Mr. Millar: "Weeds are gener- 

 ally regarded as obnoxious intruders in- 

 to the sacred precincts of our gardens 

 and fields. Gardeners know, however, 

 that these unwanted plants possess ad- 

 mirable qualities of hardihood, persist- 

 ence, and even beauty — as dandelions 

 and many others demonstrate. Miss 

 Roberts has succeeded well in revealing 

 the attractive colors, structure, and 

 stages of growth of a number of ubiqui- 

 tous weeds. Her unusual choice of sub- 

 ject is matched by the Museum's un- 

 usual hanging of the show, which we 

 think that gardeners, especially, will 

 enjoy." 



New Food 

 Management 



A he Museum cafeteria and lunch 

 room are now under the management 

 of Szabo Food Service, Inc., a national 

 food service company operating in 24 

 states. The new management has put 

 a number of procedures into operation 

 to ensure high standards of efficiency 

 and quality. 



On Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, 

 and Sunday — nights of the free Grant 

 Park concerts — the cafeteria is open 

 from 11 a.m.-7:30 p.m., serving both 

 luncheon and dinner. On other days 

 the cafeteria closes at 2 p.m. Snacks 

 and light lunches are available in the 

 lunch room daily from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. 



Left: Artichoke thistle 

 Far left: Cat-tails 



Duluth gabbro, a large igneous body 

 containing the minerals olivine and py- 

 roxene. Since the compositions of these 

 two minerals depend strongly on the 

 temperature of crystallization, their 

 analysis yields temperature values which 

 may be compared directly to very sim- 

 ilar compositions in many stony mete- 

 orites. 



In northern Minnesota, Dr. Olsen 

 found a new road construction which 

 afforded him the opportunity to collect 

 freshly blasted, and therefore relatively 

 unweathered, gabbro specimens. He 

 also obtained good collections from the 

 basal part of the gabbro. The olivine 

 and pyroxene minerals in his specimens 

 are currently being separated for anal- 

 ysis. 



Staff 

 Activities 



JL/ast month, Dr. Edward J. Olsen, 

 Curator of Mineralogy, spent three 

 weeks in the field in northern Wiscon- 

 sin, northern Minnesota, and a small 

 portion of southern Ontario. Dr. Olsen 

 is studying the mineral compositions in 

 meteorites. His purpose on this field 

 trip was to collect specimens from the 



A grant of $5,000 has been awarded 

 the Museum by the National Science 

 Foundation for continued support of re- 

 search leading to a catalog of all living 

 mammals of South America. Conduct- 

 ing the project is Mr. Philip Hershko- 

 vitz, Research Curator in the Division 

 of Mammals. Mr. Hershkovitz recently 

 presented a paper on the taxonomy and 

 geographical distribution of marmosets, 

 and led the ensuing discussion, at a 

 round table conference on marmosets 

 held at the University of Texas in 

 Houston. 



A he book, Birds in Summer, by Dr. 

 Austin L. Rand, Chief Curator of Zool- 

 ogy, has been translated into French for 

 distribution in France. Birds in Summer 

 is published by Encyclopaedia Britan- 

 nica Press. 



{Continued on next page) 



AUGUST Page 5 



