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REPORT OF THE HONORARY CURATOR OF THE ECONOMIC 
OLLECTIONS 
Dr. N. L. Britton, DrrectTor-1n-CHIerF. 
Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report for 
the Economic Museum for the year 1917. 
The work of the year has consisted chiefly of the col- 
lection of specimens in Colombia representing the useful 
products of that republic, and in connection therewith, of 
its general flora. The determination, mounting, and ar- 
rangement of these specimens has occupied the whole of 
my attention since my return. 
During the early part of the year, the addition to our 
collections consisted chiefly of drug specimens, secured in 
our local market. 
In June I sailed, in company with Dr. Pennell of the 
Garden staff, for Colombia, returning in late September, 
with an economic collection of some fifty specimens, nearly 
all preserved in glass jars in formaldehyde solution. This 
collection is of unusual interest, representing a region of 
which the economic flora is very little known. 
The most important part of the collection consists of six 
species of quinine-yielding barks, four in the genus Cinchona 
and two in Remijia. Next in importance are a large num- 
ber of fleshy edible fruits in the genera Tacsonia, Passiflora, 
Rheedia, Solanum, Cyphomandra, Rubus, Fragaria, Chry- 
sobalanus, Physalis, Thibaudia, Cavendishia, Musa, Carica, 
Melicocca, Citrus, Martinezia, Acrocomia, Bromelia, Annona, 
Eugenia, Osteomeles, and Inga. Other interesting edible 
products are a species of black walnut, soap-berries, a 
native bean of excellent quality, the tubers of Oxalts 
tuberosa and Basella, and flours made of casava root and 
of bananas. I also obtained a native root used for dyeing 
purposes. 
Of many of these articles, seeds or living materials were 
obtained for propagation in our conservatories. 
In addition to this material, about thirteen hundred 
numbers of a general botanical collection were secured. 
