PREFACE 



In the autumn of 1933, Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt of the U. S. National 

 Museum broached the possibility of the writer's engaging in marine col- 

 lecting in the warmer parts of the Pacific Ocean. Delighted at the pros- 

 pect of such a chance to extend his phycological experience, he made the 

 necessary arrangements to assure permission to leave his teaching duties. 

 In due time a kind invitation to join the pending expedition came on 

 behalf of Captain Allan Hancock, and was accepted with alacrity. There 

 was little further time for preparation, but collector's gear for a phycolo- 

 gist not being very specialized, an outfit was soon assembled and shipped. 

 Taking a circuitous route in order to establish closer relations with 

 botanists at West coast institutions, the writer joined the staff on the 

 Velero III before the end of December. This expedition spent about 

 three months in the field, making stops on Baja California, Is. Revilla 

 Gigedo, mainland Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, 

 and especially the Galapagos Islands. In territory new to the writer's 

 experience, the trip was altogether delightful, and produced a wealth of 

 material. The attractive features of the Velero III and of the Hancock 

 Expeditions have been ably described and illustrated by DeWitt Mere- 

 dith (1939) and C. McLean Eraser (1943 a, b). 



On returning to the University, full attention could not immediately 

 be given to the study of this material because the writer already had in 

 hand another considerable enterprise (Taylor 1937). However, the 

 incidental collections of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens, and the 

 Myxophyceae were sent off for study by kind and skilled friends, and, so 

 far as advantageous, reports on these have been published (Steere 1936, 

 Drouet 1936, Dodge 1936). Of the labor of those associates who have 

 generously given their time to the study and determination of the groups 

 secondarily collected in 1934 and 1939, both those which resulted in im- 

 mediate publication and those which did not, this is an appropriate place 

 to express appreciation. Because of being singlehanded and short of time 

 on land, these collections could be only fragmentary, but evidently they 

 were not the less of considerable interest. Work was started on the 

 marine algae of the expedition, but progressed slowly. It became possible 

 to take many of the specimens abroad in 1937 to compare with specimens 

 in European herbaria, a trip which also enabled the writer to prepare for 

 publication an account of certain collections from the Strait of Magellan 

 (Taylor 1939), thereby improving his knowledge of the flora south of 

 the range of the Hancock Expeditions. Hardly was intensive work again 





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