HIGHLIGHTS OF BOTANICAL EXPLORATION IN THE NEW WORLD 243 



William C. Steere was the first botanist to reach the field, having been en- 

 gaged in exploration for Cinchona in Colombia since November, 1942. He 

 was transferred to Ecuador in July, 1943, to organize operations in that coun- 

 try. As the program proceeded, he was joined successively by Julian A. Steyer- 

 mark, William B. Drew, F. Marion Ownbey, W. H. Camp, Gerald W. Pres- 

 cott, Ira L. Wiggins, F. B. Wallace, and M. Acosta-Solis. Steyermark in the 

 spring of 1943 was sent to Venezuela to extend the procurement program 

 into that region. 



F. R. Fosberg, who in November, 1942, likewise became engaged in the 

 project in Colombia, remained in Colombia to direct field operations after 

 the departure of L. R. Holdridge in February, 1943. Botanists and foresters 

 who were thereafter associated with operations in Colombia were Donald 

 Winters, William Silcocks, E. L. Core, Henry Kernan, A. L. McComb, Chapin 

 Jones, E. L. Little, Jr., F. J. Hermann, Norman Fassett, M. L. Grant, Harold 

 St. John, and Joseph Ewan. 



Thus, no fewer than twenty-two plant taxonomists of experience were 

 placed in the field in search for sources of cinchona-bark, to discover and map 

 the range and abundance of Cinchona populations within the areas of sur- 

 vey and to collect data and material preparatory to taxonomic studies of the 

 genus Cinchona and related groups. 



No record is available concerning the enormous amount of material that 

 must have been collected for the Cinchona study alone. In addition to that, 

 as Steere has indicated, there were opportunity and encouragement for parti- 

 cipating botanists to collect material of their own particular interest; for ex- 

 ample, Steere collected materials of the Rubiaceae and Bryophyta, Prescott 

 of the Algae, Drew of the Orchidaceae, Camp of the Ericaceae and Lycopo- 

 dium, Steyermark of the general flora, and Wiggins of the Pteridophyta. Ur- 

 gent as was the initial Cinchona activity during the war, as a result of the per- 

 fection of synthetic anti-malarials the immediate practical urgency soon be- 

 came inconseciuential. There remained, however, the value of the scientific, 

 chemical, phytogeographic, and taxonomic studies on Cinchona. And of fur- 

 ther significance, there will emerge as by-product contributions to the greater 

 knowledge of the Andean flora. 



The work of W. H. Camp may serve as an example of this sort of by- 

 product. During the period of the Cinchona program and for six months after 

 its termination, Camp with his assistants Francisco Prieto, Henning Jorgensen, 

 and Manuel Giler collected most vigorously in some of the more remote areas 

 of Ecuador, essentially through the period April, 1944, to October, 1945, amass- 

 ing a total of 6523 collection numbers, usually in large series and consist- 

 ently provided with good field data. This large collection, which is the most 

 valuable of contemporary material to have come from Ecuador, is at New 

 York. 



The official collections of the various members of the program have been 



