NEW EAST AFRICAN PLANTS 

 By PAUL C. STANDLEY 



The Smithsonian African Expedition of 1909-10, under the direc- 

 tion of Col. Theodore Roosevelt, was planned with the purpose of 

 increasing the biological collections of the United States National 

 Museum. While the attention of the expedition was devoted pri- 

 marily to the larger mammals of the region traversed, collections 

 were also secured of other animals and of plants. The plants were 

 collected chiefly by the late Dr. Edgar A. Mearns, one of the 

 naturalists of the party. Although Dr. Mearns was interested 

 principally in birds, he obtained a large series of plants, consisting 

 of over three thousand numbers, about 2,300 of these coming from 

 British East xA.frica, 650 from Uganda, and 125 from the Belgian 

 Congo. 



It is to be regretted that Dr. Mearns's other duties did not permit 

 him to devote more time to botanical collections, for by his long 

 experience as a field botanist he was eminently qualified for such 

 work. As naturalist of the Mexican Boundary Survey of 1892-93 

 he collected or had collected under his direction the largest and best 

 representation ever obtained, consisting of several thousand num- 

 bers, of the flora of that part of the United States and Mexican 

 boundary which extends from El Paso, Texas, to San Diego, Cali- 

 fornia. Dr. Mearns secured also what is undoubtedly the largest 

 series of plants ever obtained in the Yellowstone National Park, 

 and in addition he collected extensively in the Philippines, Arizona. 

 Florida, Rhode Island, Minnesota, and southern New York. All 

 his collections are deposited in the U. S. National Museum, and 

 probably no one person has contributed a larger number of plants 

 to that institution. 



Mr. Edmund Heller, also a naturalist of the Smithsonian African 

 Expedition, secured a smaller collection of plants, most of them 

 from localities not visited by Dr. Mearns. In addition, Mr. Heller 

 accompanied the Paul J. Rainey African expedition of 1911-12, and 

 in connection with his zoological collections obtained an interesting 

 series of plants. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. .68, No. 5 



