136 
for the purpose of collecting plants. Approximately 3,500 living 
or preserved specimens of plants were obtained, along with more 
than 120 photographs of the vegetation of Cuba. This was the 
first of many expeditions which have been made by members of the 
staff, and the observations and botanical information obtained 
have not only been published, but have also served as the basis of 
lectures for the diffusion of botanical knowledge. 
Studies along ecological lines, dealing with the vegetation of 
the vicinity of New York, were undertaken by Mr. Norman 
Taylor, the Curator of Plants. Papers were published on the 
plant life of the pine barrens of New Jersey, the growth forms of 
the flora of the vicinity of New York, the significance of the White 
Cedar Swamp, Merrick, Long Island, and a longer Memoir on the 
vegetation of Montauk, Long Island. With Barrington Moore, a 
Memoir on the vegetation of Mount Desert Island, Maine, and its 
environment, was published. 
Dr. Alfred Gundersen, Curator of Plants, has been especially 
interested in the classification of the flowering plants, and he has 
made extensive studies of the floral structure of members of several 
families with a view to determining their proper sequence in a 
system of classification. Botanists are fairly well agreed on the 
classification of most of the families of the dicotyledons, but the 
proper position in the scheme of classification of some of the 
smaller families is a matter of dispute. The studies on floral 
structure and placentation have been illustrated by excellent draw- 
ings made by Miss Maud H. Purdy, the Botanic Garden artist. 
Jr. Gundersen has also been interested in the lilacs, and has 
assembled a collection of species and many varieties of great orna- 
mental value to gardens. 
Dr. Henry K. Svenson, Curator of the Herbarium, has pub- 
lished an exhaustive study on Elocharis, a world-wide genus of 
sedges, with most of its species in the New World. The publica- 
tion included a résumé, indices, and maps, and illustrations of ap- 
proximately 150 species distributed over the whole world. An- 
other study has been made on the sedges of Panama. 
In 1930, Dr. Svenson went to the Galapagos Islands and Cocos 
Island as botanist of the Astor expedition. Over 500 flowering 
plants and ferns were collected, chiefly on Indefatigable Island 
