or both depending on the plant) should, whenever 
possible, be collected, sun or ‘blotter’ dried separate- 
ly, and affixed in an air tight bag to the original 
specimen for later chemotaxonomic use. This is es- 
pecially urgent for tropical material, since the 
habitats listed on herbarium sheets often no longer 
exist. As flavonoids have been identified in her- 
barium specimens over 100 years old, there is little 
problem of subsequent shortage! A few hours of 
extra field effort in caring for this material might then 
help towards solving taxonomic problems which 
could arise in the future, especially during expedi- 
tions of ‘‘salvage botany’’, collecting from important 
localities due to be destroyed by colonization or 
programs of *‘development through destruction’. 
Obviously, further studies are needed on the use of preser- 
vatives covering the entire range of tropical material, including 
monocotyledyons and dicotyledons, ferns and lower plants, as 
has in part been done by Giannasi for temperate plants (pers. 
comm.). With chemotaxonomy less an experimental subject 
and coming of age as a valid systematic tool, our field methods 
must be readjusted to provide a source of reliable material for 
the future investigator. Thus, the use of this material will, it is 
hoped, serve in our attempt to understand the complex and 
dynamic biological order of the tropics. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
For valuable comments and assistance in preparing this pa- 
per, we are grateful to Prof. Richard Evans Schultes and Mr. 
Michael Donoghue of Harvard University, and to Prof. Tony 
Swain of Boston University. Mr. Kim Laver, a student at 
Boston University, assisted in the experimental work. Funding 
from the following sources for field work in South America is 
gratefully acknowledged: Centro de Desarrollo Integrado 
“Las Gaviotas”, Colombia, Dr. Paolo Lugari Castrillon, Di- 
rector; Sigma-Xi, the Scientific Research Society of North 
America; the Atkins Fund of Harvard University. 
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