ment and expansion with the impetus given by the second and 

 third directors of the Museum, Professor Oakes Ames and Pro- 

 fessor Paul C. Mangelsdorf, respectively. 



Research 



M 



carried out not only in the laboratory, herbarium and library, 

 but also in the field. Every aspect of the Museum's research 

 involves field work or extensive exploration in a great variety of 

 regions, including Mexico, the Andes and Amazonian parts of 

 South America, Greenland, Canada, South Africa, Australia, 

 Afghanistan, to name only a few of the areas where the staff and 

 students have worked. It has also invoked research in agricul- 

 tural experimental fields. Lastly, certain aspects of its research 



have concerned historical and archaeological aspect of ethno- 

 botany. 



Teaching 



M 



course offerings in Harvard's Department of Biology on both 

 the undergraduate and graduate levels. Recent courses by its 

 staff have introduced students to the complexities of evolution 

 of crop plants, paleobotany and the evolution of plant life 

 through geological time. The country's oldest course in eco- 

 nomic botany, currently known as "Plants and Human Affairs," 

 has strongly influenced many of its students who have continued 

 in academia, in science, in industry and in medicine. Numerous 

 courses in various specialized phases of economic botany and 

 the effect of plants on history have during the past twenty years 

 been offered to the public in Harvard's Commission on Exten- 

 sion. The course "Plants and Human Affairs" has also been 

 taught on several occasions in Harvard's Summer School pro- 

 gram and advanced courses in medical botany have, until 

 recently, been part of the offerings of the Department of 

 Biology. 



Graduate student doctoral research supervised by the Museum 

 staff has encompassed a wide spectrum of topics in paleobotany 

 (Precambrian evolution of life. Pleistocene vegetation patterns 



3 



