430 JOURNAL OF THE WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES VOL. 13, NO. 19 
bers. Besides the assistance of Mr. Tonduz, the Institute had the 
active collaboration of a number of collectors, among whom were the 
late Prof. Paul Biolley of Neuchatel, Switzerland, one of the most 
efficient teachers brought into Costa Rica by the Government of this 
latter country, Charles Wercklé, an erratic but very keen-eyed botan- 
ist, C. Brade, ete., and, among the natives, J. J. Cooper, Anastasio 
Alfaro, Carlos Brenes, Otdn Jimenez, and perhaps a few others. 
The collecting was continued for several years after I left the country, 
until the ultimate numbering went up, if [ am not mistaken, to about 
23,000. Of these, I estimate that about a fourth part was collected 
by me, half by Tonduz, and the rest by our other co-workers. Of 
course, every label bears the name of the collector, which fact was the 
origin of a certain confusion which was increased when I started my 
own series after I went to Washington. This latter series includes, 
up to-the present date, 11053 numbers, and contains plants from 
every country of continental America, from Central Mexico to Vene- 
zuela, the result of about twenty-two years’ explorations. 
The most complete set of the Costa Rican collection is probably 
that of the United States National Herbarium in Washington, which, 
of course, has also all the plants I brought together while in the 
service of the United States Department of Agriculture, and the most 
complete set of my Venezuelan collections. 
The botanical exploration of Costa Rica revealed that country as 
an astonishing center of endemic development for a considerable 
number of genera and families, and furnished also a large quota of 
new species. The same can be said of certain parts of Panama, such 
as the high mountains of Chiriqui and the lowlands of Darien, so 
that the collection of types of the National Herbarium has been, and 
is still being, considerably increased by the additions proceeding from 
these countries. 
The plants which form both collections have been, as mentioned 
above, very often designated so as to cause mistakes and confusion. 
The first series is that of the Physico-Geographical Institute, and the 
only right way of citing the plants belonging to it is by mentioning 
this fact. For instance, we would have: 
Calathea macrosepala K. Schum.—La Verbena de Alajuelita, near 
San José, 1000 m., in ditches (Pittier, Inst. Phys.-geogr. cost. 8832); 
near Turrialba, 570 m. (T’onduz, Inst. Phys.-geogr. cost. 8310), ete. 
Mentioning the first specimen as Pittier no. 8832, as it is done in 
Schumann’s monograph of the Marantaceae,’ is misleading, because the 
2In Encuer, Pflanzenreich, Heft 1V, 48:84. 1902. 
