SECRETARY'S REPORT 13 
352 plants, collected by Dr. Bassett Maguire in the “Lost World” region 
of Venezuela, from the New York Botanical Garden; and 282 plants 
from the V. L. Komarov Botanical Institute, Academy of Sciences of 
the USSR, consisting of issues 81-84 of their “Herbarium of the Flora 
of the USSR” and “Decas I-V Hepaticae and Musci USSR 
Exsiccati.” 
Several large collections were received with identifications requested, 
including 490 specimens, collected in Colombia by Jean Langenheim, 
from the University of California; 948 plants of Santa Catarina, 
Brazil, from the Herbirio “Barbosa Rodrigues,” Itajai, Santa Cata- 
rina, Brazil; and 268 miscellaneous South American specimens from 
the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. 
Dr. Mason KE. Hale and Robert R. Ireland collected 4,295 lichens 
and 1,491 mosses on field trips in Virginia in connection with their 
research projects. Transferred from the Department of the Interior 
were 1,851 plants of Polynesia collected by Dr. F. R. Fosberg. ‘There 
were purchased from the Archbold Expeditions 1,902 specimens col- 
lected by L. J. Brass on the Fifth Archbold Expedition to New 
Guinea; from Paul Aellen, Basel, Switzerland, 1,140 specimens col- 
lected by Dr. K. Rechinger in Ivan and Greece; and from Winifred 
M. A. Brooke, Liss, England, 830 plants she collected in Sarawak. 
Geology—The legendary Hope diamond, the largest and most no- 
tuble of all blue diamonds, was presented on November 10, 1958, by 
Harry Winston, New York gem merchant and connoisseur. ‘The 
Hope diamond ranks in importance with other famous gems, such 
as the Kohinoor, Cullinan, and Regent, found only in the Crown 
Jewels of Europe. Because of its long and dramatic history, the 
legends built around it, and its rare, deep-blue color, the Hope dia- 
mond is probably the best known diamond in the world. Mr. Win- 
ston acquired it in 1949 from the estate of the late Mrs. Evalyn Walsh 
McLean, of Washington, who received it from her husband, Edward 
B. McLean, in 1911. Its known history prior to the McLean pur- 
chase dates from 1830, when David Eliason, a noted gem dealer, sold 
the stone to Henry Thomas Hope, an Irish squire and banker. ‘The 
stone was shown at the London Exposition in 1851. In 1867 it was 
sold at Christie’s in London. It was acquired in 1908 by the Sultan 
Habib Bey, but after the Young Turks Revolt the gem was again 
placed on the market and purchased by Mr. McLean in 1911. 
One of the world’s finest collections of Chinese jade carvings was 
presented by the estate of Mrs. Maude Monell Vetlesen through her 
son, Edmund C. Monell. The collection comprises 130 pieces, carved 
in one or the other of the two jade minerals, nephrite or jadeite. Some 
of the specimens date from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), but most 
are from the Ching Dynasty (1644-1912). Noteworthy gifts in min- 
