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of Porto Rico. Our own portion of the preliminary work 
of such a survey has been largely performed already by the 
several expeditions which we have sent to that island. 
Several localities upon and near it, however, still remain to 
be visited, and we have arranged for such visits during 1914 
by the Director-in-Chief and Dr. J. A. Shafer. For a 
similar purpose, the Director-in-Chief will also make a short 
visit to Bermuda. The most important exploration of the 
year will be one to the West Andean region by Dr. Shafer, 
for the purpose of collecting living Cactaceae, not only to 
complete our collections, but also to supply material for 
study and illustration in the preparation of the proposed 
monograph of that family. The expense of this work will 
be shared by the Carnegie Institution. There are probably 
two hundred or more species of cactuses growing in the 
Andes which are not represented in our collection, and we 
are hoping much from the results of this expedition. 
Arrangements have been made for cooperating with the 
newly formed School of Agriculture of Columbia University. 
A portion of land which is not needed in our own cultural 
operations is to be used by that school for experiment and 
instruction. 
The director of our laboratories, Dr. Stout, has been 
assigned to duty in Europe for a period of six weeks, to 
pursue special studies in relation to the subjects already 
mentioned as having occupied him during the past year. 
The most important subject that is now engaging our 
attention is that of providing for that extension of our work 
which is inevitable in the early future. We have already 
outgrown the capacity of our present Museum Building. 
At one time during 1912, we were strongly inclined to en- 
croach upon the museum floors for needed laboratory space, 
and we avoided this contingency only by a temporary 
expedient that has been found decidedly inconvenient in 
our scientific work. Our necessities in this direction have 
since grown and we feel that we must very shortly resort to 
the undesirable method which I have mentioned. Such an 
