148 
Dr. Ralph H. Cheney was appointed Resident Investigator for 
Economic Plants in July, 1931. His research program was de- 
veloped around two major topics—the beverage plants, and the 
medicinal plants of the world. Taxonomic and geographic studies 
were made, followed by experimental investigations to extend the 
knowledge of the effects of the beverage and medicinal extracts, 
in comparison with the effects of the purified active principles 
derived from them, upon the normal physiological processes in 
man. Chief attention was devoted to the caffeine-yielding plants, 
and the results have been published in domestic and foreign sci- 
entific journals. After the beginning of the present war, a survey 
of the availability of essential drug and insecticide plants in the 
nurseries of the northeastern United States was completed, as a 
unit in the service record of the Botanic Garden to the national 
emergency. 
