OAKES AMES 
1874-1950 
YEAR has now elapsed since ProfessorOakes Ames, 
who served the Botanical Museum as its principal 
administrative officer from 1928 to 1945, first as Curator, 
later as Supervisor, and finally as Director, passed away 
on April 28, 1950. In the intervening months the mem- 
bers of the staff of the Botanical Museum have been 
engaged in completing this volume of the Botanical 
Museum Leaflets which, soon after his death, it was de- 
cided to dedicate to his memory. 
The choice of the Leaflets as the medium for a mem- 
orial volume was a quite natural one since Professor 
Ames himself founded the Leaflets and since they rep- 
resent not only his diverse botanical interests, but also 
his insistence upon high quality in paper, printing, com- 
position and illustration. Professor Ames deplored the 
trend toward cheaper publications. ‘‘A scholarly scientific 
paper,” he said, ‘‘is a jewel worthy of a proper setting. ”’ 
The entire staff of the Botanical Museum has shared 
in the production of this volume, and the papers which 
it contains represent quite accurately the extraordinary 
diversity of Professor Ames’ botanical interests. Of the 
fourteen papers, ten are concerned with taxonomy and 
three of these with the taxonomy of the orchids, Professor 
Ames’ lifelong special interest. His second professional 
love, economic botany, is represented by eight papers 
of which five are also taxonomic and three are in ethno- 
botany, a field which the Botanical Museum, at Professor 
Ames’ instigation, has fostered in recent years. Paleo- 
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