BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
OVEMBER 22, 1968 
CATALOGUE OF INFRARED SPECTRA 
OF FOSSIL RESINS (AMBERS) 
I NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA’ 
BY 
Jean H. LANGENHEIM AND Curt W. Beck’ 
Fossit resins are of interest to the mineralogist, palaeon- 
tologist, botanist, entomologist, chemist, and archaeolo- 
gist, but, because their study straddles these many fields, 
they have not received comprehensive attention from 
any quarter. During the 19th Century, mineralogists 
described and named well over 100 fossil resins, mostly 
of European origin, and botanists and entomologists 
studied plant and insect inclusions, primarily in Baltic 
' Grateful acknowledgment is made for funds to support this study 
from National Science Foundation grants GB-1312 and GB-2397 
at Harvard University and GS-739 and GP-4729 at Vassar College. 
Also financial assistance was provided to Professor Langenheim by 
the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study and to both Professors 
Langenheim and Beck by the American Philosophical Society for the 
Advancement of Useful Knowledge. Mr. Gil Hillman, Mr. Anthony 
Placeres and Mr. Sumner Slavin assisted with preparation of the spec- 
tra and Mrs. Patty Shepard prepared the illustrations. Appreciation 
is likewise expressed to Professor E. S. Barghoorn for his continued 
interest and support of the project as well as his criticism of the manu- 
script and to Mr. James Doyle for his helpful discussions of Creta- 
ceous stratigraphy and floras. 
?Jean H. Langenheim, formerly a Research Associate in the Bo- 
tanical Museum, is now at the Division of Natural Sciences, University 
of California at Santa Cruz. Curt W. Beck is at the Department of 
Chemistry, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York. 
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VoL. 22, No. 
