80 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



Mr. Smith made a week's trip to the paramos of Vetas. Santurban, 

 Mogotocoro, Rico, and Frailejonale, and I spent the following week 

 in the vicinity of La Baja, visiting the paramos of Las Puentes, 

 Las Coloradas, and Romeral. 



On February i8 we started on our long journey to Pamplona over 

 the vast paramo of Santurban, the bleak region that so effectively 

 cuts oft' the northeastern part of Colombia from the rest of the country. 

 In the immediate neighborhood of this city nearly all the land had 

 been cleared, so we moved on at once to Toledo, due east and close to 

 the Venezuelan border. Here, at the headwaters of the Orinoco 

 system, a flora vastly dift'erent from that to the westward was found. 



Having completed our work in the Eastern Cordillera we proceeded 

 back to the coast as directly as possible, by way of Cucuta, iNIaracaibo, 

 Curagao, and Puerto Colombia, making small collections at each of 

 these places. 



In the course of the present exploration approximately 7,200 col- 

 lecting numbers were obtained, represented by nearly 30,000 speci- 

 mens. In this collection are about 800 numbers of ferns, 300 of 

 orchids, over 200 of the mimosa and cassia families, approximately 

 75 morning-glories and lOO passion flowers, and nearly 700 Com- 

 positae ; about a third of the collection consists of woody plants. Sets 

 have been distributed to the cooperating institutions and the work of 

 identification has been begun. 



The routes of the three expeditions which have gone into Colombia 

 in connection with the present exploration work are shown on the 

 accompanying map (p. 74). Although 60,000 specimens in all have 

 been collected, there are, it will be noted, several wholly untouched 

 areas, such as the Amazon and Orinoco basins in the southeastern 

 part, the northwest section adjacent to Panama, and the Pasto region, 

 near the Ecuador border. Additional work should l)e done also in the 

 Santa Marta Mountains and among the isolated peaks at the northern 

 end of the Western Cordillera. 



