CHAPTER XVII 



Panama 



I 



THINK nine friends out of ten, if asked to speculate 

 on the best job I had ever done in my life, would agree 

 that the help I was able to give the Barro Colorado Island 

 Laboratory ranked first. 



The story is not without drama. It began in a drab, bick- 

 ering meeting of scientists in Washington, and was fol- 

 lowed by the organization of an "Institute" which existed 

 only on paper and which apparently was unlikely ever to 

 serve a useful purpose. Then, with the flooding of Gatun 

 Lake in Panama, came the realization that an island was 

 created out of what had once been a tropical hilltop. James 

 Zetek, Richard Strong, and William Morton Wheeler per- 

 suaded Governor Morrow to set the island aside for scien- 

 tific purposes, and thus in 1923 imaginations began to kin- 

 dle. This letter of Dr. Wheeler's tells its own story: — 



Washington, D. C. 

 July 7, 192s 

 My dear Fairchild: — 



I have just returned from Woods Hole where I had 

 a long talk with Dr. Schramm in regard to the Barro 

 Colorado Laboratory. On my return to Boston I also 

 talked over the matter with Dr. Barbour. Both of these 

 gentlemen feel, and I heartily agree with them, that it 

 would be advisable for the Tropical Plant Research 



