40 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



Under an arrangement with R. O. Marsh, John L. Baer repre- 

 sented the Museum on the Marsh Darien expedition undertaken in 

 the early part of 1924, for collecting anthropological material in a 

 region poorly represented in the anthropological collections. As 

 mentioned elsewhere, Mr. Baer died while on this trip and the 

 collections have not as yet reached the Museum. 



Botanical explorations in northern South America conducted 

 under the auspices of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 the Gray Herbarium, and the New York Botanical Garden benefited 

 the National Herbarium. Dr. A. S. Hitchcock, custodian of grasses, 

 on this exploration spent four months in Ecuador, two months in 

 Peru, six weeks in Bolivia, and a few days in Panama. Large col- 

 lections were obtained, of which a set of approximately 1,700 speci- 

 mens, exclusive of grasses, was deposited in the National Herbarium. 

 Two expeditions undertaken for the Bureau of Entomology of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture by Dr. William M. 

 Mann, assistant custodian of Hymenoptera in the Museum, resulted 

 in collections of insects and also specimens in other classes. The 

 first three months of the fiscal year were spent in Mexico collecting 

 miscellaneous insects and four months in the spring of 1924 in 

 Panama, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Honduras, collect- 

 ing insects, especially ants. 



Another very considerable miscellaneous collection from Guate- 

 mala, of which birds formed the conspicuous part, was obtained by 

 Harry Malleis, who visited the Province of Peten for the Bureau 

 of Biological Survey, primarily to obtain living specimens of the 

 ocellated turkey for introduction into this country. 



During the spring of 1923 Dr. H. G. Dyar, custodian of Lepidop- 

 tera, made a trip to Panama, financed by himself, in company with 

 R. C. Shannon, of the Bureau of Entomology of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, whose expenses were paid by that bu- 

 reau, resulting in many thousand insects, including extensive collec- 

 tions of mosquitoes, in which Doctor Dyar was specially interested. 

 Dr. T. E. Snyder, of the Bureau of Entomology, also visited Pan- 

 ama, securing large collections of termites which will be added to the 

 National material. 



An expedition from the Department of Agriculture to Panama 

 and Central America was accompanied by Dr. William R. Maxon, 

 associate curator of plants, the field work in Panama, western Nica- 

 ragua, and Costa Rica resulting in 4,.500 botanical specimens. The 

 Nicaraguan material will be especially useful in the preparation of 

 the proposed flora of Central America. 



The Panama Canal Zone and Costa Rica were visited also by Paul 

 C. Standley, associate curator of plants, the expense of the explora- 



