Vol. XI] El ERM ANN— DIRECTOR'S REPORT FOR 1921 629 



The Botanical Club holds weekly meetings or excursions and the 

 class of gardeners meets in the herbarium every Thursday evening. The 

 gardeners bring in rare plants for identification and are enthusiastic 

 supporters of the herbarium. Antone Blazic, one of them, who is now 

 in Florida, has sent about 100 specimens of native and exotic plants 

 from Palm Beach and Miami. Besides these activities towards popular- 

 izing botany, the curator gives informal talks to clubs and schools, par- 

 ticularly emphasizing the need to spread the gospel of conservation of the 

 native flora. 



My assistant, Mrs. Kate E. Phelps, has been most efficient in mounting 

 the accessions, putting them in their proper places in the herbarium, 

 making an inventory of the collection, and generally looking after the 

 specimens to be pressed and dried. In California this can go on 

 throughout the entire year and takes a great deal of time and attention. 



It has been impossible so far for me to do any original botanical 

 work which adds so much to the scientific value of the herbarium, be- 

 cause my time is taken up with the herbarium detail work necessary to 

 keep so rapidly growing a collection in order, and a great deal is work 

 that only a botanist can do. I greatly need a botanical assistant as well 

 as my present poorly paid helper. 



Alice Eastwood, Curator. 



Department of Entomology 



The outstanding feature of the work in this department during the 

 year 1921 was the Academy's Expedition to the Islands of the Gulf of 

 California, in which the curator took part as entomologist. This expedi- 

 tion was in the field from about April first to July fifteenth, which was 

 at the end of the dry season there, and the worst possible time for col- 

 lecting insects. The few insects about at that time were those that had 

 survived a long dry season and had escaped their foes among the birds, 

 lizards and other forms of predaceous life. A very considerable portion 

 of the material taken was found in aestivation, either under stones and 

 rotting wood or, in many cases, was dug out of the ground from about 

 the roots of trees or bushes. In spite of these obstacles, over 13,000 

 specimens of insects were secured. After the return of the expedition 

 much of the spare time of the curator for two or three months was 

 occupied in mounting the specimens, printing and attaching the, over 

 30,000, pin labels required for this material, and in getting it assorted 

 for study. A good beginning has now been made in the determination 

 of these insects. Dr. F. E. Blaisdell has made good headway with the 

 Tenebrionidse and has found a very large percentage of new forms 

 among them. Mr. F. R. Cole, who is working up the Diptera, has found 

 an almost equally large proportion of new forms among the Bombyllidae, 

 or bee-flies. Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell is now working on the bees and 

 has found more than half the species to be new. Miss Annette F. Braun 

 has worked up the few microlepidoptera taken, describing several new 

 forms. Other material from this expedition has been sent to the fol- 



