Future of Botanical Research in Alaska— Wiggins 113 



At about this time, too, non-governmental expeditions were 

 organized to explore the coasts and interior of Alaska. Ex- 

 amples of such were the Harriman Alaska Expedition, made 

 up of twenty-five scientists and a number of preparators and 

 artists, that visited Alaska in May and June of 1899, and a 

 similar, although smaller, expedition sent out by the University 

 of California a little later in the same summer. Collections 

 larger than any ever gotten together by a single Alaskan expedi- 

 tion prior to that time were taken out by each of these groups. 

 Critical study of these collections resulted in the appearance ol 

 a number of important publications (2, 6, 19). These two ex- 

 peditions are mentioned at the neglect of others chiefly because 

 each resulted in a marked increase in knowledge about the 

 flora of Alaska and stimulated a greater interest than had there- 

 tofore existed among American botanists. The botanical re- 

 wards from these explorational forays might have been even 

 greater had all of the material been worked up expeditiously 

 and published at once. 



As Alaska attracted more permanent residents yet another 

 broadening coverage of the flora developed. Amateur botanists 

 (so called because they made their livings at other pursuits), 

 began to observe the plants in the vicinities of their homes and 

 to write about them. Some of these "amateurs," as in the con- 

 tinental United States, were remarkably keen and accurate 

 observers. Their collecting was usually meticulous and their 

 specimens beautifully prepared. Among the more outstanding 

 of them in Alaska was J. P. Anderson, who lived in the Terri- 

 tory from 1914 to 1941. He spent as much time as he could 

 spare from his business in careful field work well out on the 

 Aleutian chain, in remote sections of interior Alaska, on several 

 islands in the Bering Sea, and northward along the arctic coast 

 all the way to Point Barrow. His patient field work is now 

 nearing complete fruition in the appearance of a series of papers 

 entitled "Flora of Alaska and Adjacent Parts of Canada" (1), 

 which, I believe, is within one number of completion. This 

 work is the first one dealing with the whole Alaskan flora that 

 includes keys to the genera and to all of the species treated. 



