14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 



were then divided between the National Museum and the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology. 



General Survey of the Mexican Flora. — From 1897 to 1911, 

 Dr. J. N. Rose, associate curator of the National Herbarium, car- 

 ried on extensive botanical explorations in Mexico, in cooperation 

 at diflferent times with the New York Botanical Garden, the New 

 York Aquarium, the U. S. Departn^ent of Agriculture, the Bureau 

 of Fisheries, and the Mexican government, with a view to making 

 known the diverse flora of that country. During this work, many 

 thousands of plants were collected, hundreds of which were new to 

 science and to the collections of the National Museum and of other 

 institutions to which they were distributed. 



Through the cooperation of the U. S. Department of Agriculture 

 and the New York Botanical Garden, some of the more interesting 

 forms were grown in greenhouses in Washington and New York. 

 Many new species have been described, and important critical genera 

 and groups revised by Doctor Rose, either alone or in collaboration 

 with Dr. N. L. Britton, in various publications. 



Study of the Cactaccae. — ^From 1912 up to the present time. 

 Dr. J. N. Rose has been engaged with Dr. N. L. Britton, director- 

 in-chief of the New York Botanical Garden, in an investigation of 

 the Cactaceae of North and South America, a study begun several 

 years previously, but since 191 2 chiefly financed by the Carnegie In- 

 stitution of Washington, with the cooperation of the New York 

 Botanical Garden, the U. S. National Museum, and the U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture. Besides the earlier Mexican exploration, 

 field trips in northern, western, and eastern South America have 

 yielded valuable material bearing on this project. The results of the 

 investigation are being published by the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington in four large, profusely illustrated volumes, entitled 

 " The Cactaceae." In this study the authors have had the valued 

 cooperation of a large number of botanists and botanical collectors 

 throughout the western United States and all tropical America, as 

 well as of many institutions and special students of this family in 

 Europe. 



Exploration of northern South America. — In the early part of 

 1918, a cooperative plan of exploration in northern South America 

 was entered into by the New York Botanical Garden, the Gray Her- 

 barium of Harvard University, and the U. S. National Museum, for 

 the purpose of obtaining through joint field work a better knowledge 

 of the rich and varied flora of northern South America, and of 



