22 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1960 



In continuation of aicheological research in Iraq, Dr. Stewart de- 

 parted for that country on June 1. The 1960 Shanidar Expedition, 

 jointly sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and Columbia Uni- 

 versity, extends the collaboration between Dr. Stewart and Dr. Ralph 

 S. Solecki, formerly on the staff of the division of archeology. 

 Dr. Stewart plans to work at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad restoring, 

 casting, and studying the adult skeletal remains recovered in 1957 by 

 Dr. Solecki in the Mousterian layer of Shanidar Cave, and will then 

 join the rest of the party at the Cave to help remove other remains. 



Several members of the staff of the department of botany, Dr. Ly- 

 man B. Smith, Dr. Richard S. Cowan, Dr. Velva E. Rudd, C. V. Mor- 

 ton, and Dr. Mason E. Hale, Jr., with Dr. A. C. Smith, Director of the 

 Museum of Natural History, participated in the IX International 

 Botanical Congress in Montreal in August. This important Congress, 

 which convenes only once every five years, in 1959 attracted more than 

 3,000 botanists from all parts of the world and was held in simul- 

 taneous sessions at McGill University and the University of Mont- 

 real. It was preceded from August 16 to 19 by meetings of the 

 section of nomenclature, which involved several of the Smithsonian's 

 botanists. 



In May and June Dr. Lyman B. Smith, curator of phanerogams, 

 visited several major herbaria in California in pursuit of his studies 

 of the plant families Bromeliaceae, Xyridaceae, and Velloziaceae. 

 He also studied a number of collections of living Bromeliaceae and of 

 the genus Begonia in Los Angeles and conferred with various mem- 

 bers of the Bromeliad Society and the American Begonia Society. 



In June Dr. Richard S. Cowan, associate curator of phanerogams, 

 visited several American museums to observe natural-history exhibits, 

 to test audio-commentary systems, and to study exhibition techniques 

 in connection with the proposed Hall of Plant Life at the Smithsonian. 



Continuing her studies of the family Leguminosae, Dr. Velva E. 

 Rudd, associate curator of phanerogams, visited several herbaria 

 during the year. Following her attendance at the IX International 

 Botanical Congress in Montreal, she spent three days at the New 

 York Botanical Garden examining types and other specimens of 

 genera closely related to Ormosia^ and also the available ^lexican 

 material of papilionate legumes of the tribe Sophoreae. She made 

 similar studies of the same groups at the herbarium of the Chicago 

 Natural History Museum in connection with her attendance at the 

 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science in December. In May she spent three weeks at California 

 herbaria examining plant specimens and accumulating data pertaining 

 to a treatment of the papilionate legumes of Mexico. 



In continuation of his studies of the large family Melastomataceae, 

 Dr. J. J. "VYurdack, associate curator of phanerogams, visited the New 



