26 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1940 



Upon invitation of the Venezuelan Government, Mrs. Agnes Chase, 

 custodian of grasses, was detailed to Venezuela in February for the 

 purpose of studying the grasses of that country and recommending 

 plans for agrostological research. Field work was carried out suc- 

 cessfully in the western, northern, and eastern parts of the country 

 during a stay of 6 weeks. Notwithstanding an almost unprecedented 

 drouth, about 1,500 specimens were collected. Continuing his study 

 of the flora of Big Pine Key, Fla., E. P. Killip, associate curator of 

 the National Herbarium, accompanied by Robert F. Martin, of the 

 Department of Agriculture, spent a period of 2 weeks there in mid- 

 winter. To the 208 species of plants discovered on three earlier 

 visits, 32 were added, and many duplicates were collected for general 

 distribution. 



Geology. — Dr. W. F. Foshag, curator of physical and chemical 

 geology, spent August 1939 collecting minerals in Mexico, confining 

 his studies largely to the states of Nuevo Leon and Durango. 

 Mapimi and Cerro Mercado, in the state of Durango, yielded excep- 

 tionally fine material, notably the rare arsenates of iron from upper 

 workings of the Ojuela mine recently reopened by Mexican miners, 

 and fine apatite crystals and associated minerals from Cerro Mercado. 

 Among other localities visited were Banderas, Cabrellas, Higueras, 

 Diente, Zimapan, Guanajuato, and Queretaro. After the Instituto 

 Geologico de Mexico had deducted its selection, eight cases were 

 shipped to Washington. 



Late in September, Dr. G. A. Cooper, assistant curator of strati- 

 graphic paleontology, joined Dr. Josiah Bridge, of the United States 

 Geological Survey, in Salt Lake City, Utah, whence they journeyed 

 CO Logan, where Dr. J. S. Williams, of Utah State Agricultural 

 College, assisted them in the study of that region. The classic 

 area for Cambrian, Lower Ordovician, and Devonian fossils, near 

 Eureka, Nev., was visited, and 12 days were spent with Dr. T. S. 

 Nolan and party, of the United States Geological Survey. Next, 

 Las Vegas, Nev., furnished Lower Ordovician collections for future 

 studies of that little-known area. The Devonian rocks at Silver 

 City, N. Mex., were next examined and excellent fossils collected. 

 From here the party proceeded to El Paso and Van Horn, Tex., 

 obtaining Lower Ordovician fossils from the El Paso limestone; 

 then to Marathon and the Glass Mountains, where 5 days were 

 devoted to collecting silicified Permian fossils. The Central Hill 

 country of Texas was visited for Cambrian fossils, and Mineral 

 Wells for deposits of Pennsylvanian age. Turning homeward by 

 way of the Arbuckle Mountains and Criner Hills, Okla., they de- 

 voted a week to collecting Middle Ordovician fossils. Dr. Cooper 

 continued to Lower Ordovician outcrops in south-central Missouri 

 and the Silurian of Little Saline Valley in east-central Missouri. 



