JAN. 19, 1923 SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 31 
Type in the U. 8. National Herbarium, no. 1,140,001, collected in dense 
forest above La Cumbre, Department of El Valle, western cordillera of 
Colombia, at about 2,200 meters altitude, September 18, 1922, by Ellsworth 
P. Killip (no. 11365). The description is drawn partly from a second sheet 
of the type collection. Duplicates will be distributed to the Gray Herbarium, 
the New York Botanical Garden, and the Academy of Natural Sciences, 
Philadelphia, in whose interests also the recent botanical exploration in 
western Colombia was conducted under the leadership of Dr. F. W. Pennell. 
Related to Microstaphyla moorei, which is distinguished readily, however, 
by (1) its oblong, non-caudate blades, the basal pinnae not reduced and the 
apical ones few and abruptly discontinuous; (2) its very much narrower 
divisions, these acute and invariably with a single veinlet; (3) its delicately 
membranous, translucent leaf tissue, the venation being readily evident 
without the aid of transmitted light. 4. moore: is a more delicate plant 
than M. columbiana in every way; in some fronds all the pinnae are undivided. 
Fertile fronds of M. columbiana, unrepresented in the material at hand, are 
presumably similar in general form to those of M. moorei. 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 
A recent circular to employees of the U. 8. Coast and Geodetic Survey 
calls attention to tests made in the section of field records which indicate 
that mounted drawing paper in rolls fails to give flat surfaces when cut into 
lengths for immediate use. Due to unequal seasoning, surplus paper exists 
near the lengthwise edges of the rolls and this condition brings about a notice- 
able distortion in projections constructed on the sheets. In order to minimize 
this unequal seasoning it is suggested that entire rolls of mounted drawing 
paper, when received in the field, be immediately cut into sheets of suitable 
lengths for smooth plotting work and stowed face down in a ventilated drawer. 
Final tests of the new field automatic tide gauge of the U. S. Coast and 
Geodetic Survey were made recently at the Lighthouse Wharf in Washington. 
These tests showed that this tide gauge will give thoroughly satisfactory 
records for use of hydrographic parties. 
