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tree met with, as it is very dry for the first 2,000 feet of elevation, 
after which the ravines become more interesting, frequently 
have water in them, and tree-ferns and other moisture-loving 
plants become more numerous as the altitude increases. The 
tree-fern, of which there are several species, is quite abundant 
about the summit, especially on the north side of some of the 
lower ridges. ig rock was reached late in the afternoon 
and a considerable Se was secured by nightfall. The night 
was spent under an overhanging rock, which afforded protection 
from rain and wind, but it was necessary to build a fire to keep 
comfortable. Collecting was resumed shortly after daybreak 
next morning in a dense fog and a dripping vegetation, and many 
kinds of ferns, orchids, and other plants that I had not seen 
elsewhere were secured. I started on the descent about one 
o'clock, collecting on the way down through the upper and 
moister region, reaching Firmeza shortly after dark with all the 
party well loaded with plants, but regretting that I had not made 
arrangements providing for several days’ stay at the summit. 
onday morning I returned to Santiago, dried and packed my 
material, and left for Antilla, from which port I embarked, 
arriving in New York on the morning of March 15, 1911. 
Respectfully submitted, 
J. A. SHAFER. 
JACQUIN’S SELECTARUM STIRPIUM HISTORIA 
ICONIBUS PICTIS. 
Through the liberality of Mr. Andrew Carnegie, the library 
of the New York Botanical Garden has been able to secure a 
copy of what is undoubtedly the most valuable single volume in 
modern botanical literature, that is, in the botanical literature 
of the last one hundred and fifty years. It is of especial value 
to the New York Botanical Garden, in view of the systematic 
botanical exploration of the West Indies by this institution for 
some years past, in that it is devoted exclusively to the plants of 
the Antillean region and adjacent South America. 
In the year 1752, Nicolaus Joseph Jacquin, then 25 years of 
