THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION CLARK. 143 



time. His publications have been voluminous in all phases of his 

 specialty. 



During his administration the natural history and fine-arts collec- 

 tions have been brought to a high status. The Institution has come 

 into very close afliliation with a number of research corporations 

 and scientific bodies through his official relation in their director- 

 ship. He has taken deep interest in the promotion of the art of 

 aviation, being largely instrumental in the establishment by Con- 

 gress of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, having 

 as one of its primary objects the bringing into close coordination 

 of the Army and Navy and other branches of the Government and 

 private interests engaged in various lines of aeronautical research. 



A prominent department of activity throughout the history of the 

 Institution has been the scientific exploration of regions imperfectly 

 known, particularly in North America. Expeditions have been 

 fitted out under the Institution's immediate direction and others 

 organized by private enterprise or by Government departments 

 have been aided by counsel and instructions. The geological work of 

 the Mexican Boundary Survey, the Colorado expeditions of Lieut. 

 Ives, explorations to the Yellowstone, and many expieditions and 

 explorations in Alaska, in the Arctic, in Africa, in Siberia, in South 

 America, in China, in Tibet, and elsewhere have been more or less 

 intimately related with the Smithsonian Institution. 



The numerous and important services rendered to botanical science 

 have greatly increased knowledge of the flora of little-known regions, 

 especially in the south and west of this country and in Mexico, and, 

 as a result of numerous investigations and surveys, there has been 

 brought together in the Institution the great National Herbarium of 

 more than 1,000,000 specimens of the flora of the United States and 

 foreign lands. 



Recently the Institution has acquired a three years' lease of the 

 Cinchona Botanical Station at Jamaica, comprising about 10 acres 

 of land, with offices, laboratories, and other buildings, for the fur- 

 therance of our knowledge of West Indian botany. Assignment of 

 botanists who desire to prosecute studies there are made on the recom- 

 mendation of organizations which have cooperated with the Institu- 

 tion in securing the use of this important field for botanical investi- 

 gations. 



Under the auspices of the Institution and in cooperation with 

 several departments of the Government, there has been a most thor- 

 ough biological and geological survey of the Panama Canal Zone, 

 resulting in a great addition to the Iniowledge of the fauna and flora 

 and the geological history of that region. 



