JOURNAL 
OF 
The New York Botanical Garden 
VoL. XII. May, 1911. No. 137. 
BOTANICAL EXPLORATION IN CUBA. 
To THE SCIENTIFIC DirEcTORS, 
Gentlemen: In continuation of the botanical exploration of the 
West Indies, I spent the latter part of February and the month 
of March, I911, in western and central Cuba, sailing from New 
York on February 18 and returning on il 4. Mrs. Britton 
accompanied me as on previous expeditions, and we were for- 
tunate in having with us Mr. John F. Cowell, director of the 
Buffalo Botanic Garden, who had previously coéperated in our 
exploration work on the islands of St. ae and Porto Rico. 
We reached Havana on February 22 and the day was spent in 
company with Brother Lecn, of the Colegio a la Salle, in a visit 
to the coastal hills and river valley east of Vedado. Brother 
Leon guided us to a single specimen of what appears to be a rare 
cactus with sharply four-winged stems which I had on a previous 
occasion observed in the vicinity of Cojimar, east of Havana, 
but had failed to establish the species in our collections. The 
plant forms a bush three feet high or more, but it was neither in 
flower or fruit at this point and, as in my previous observation 
of the species in Cojimar which was.in the same barren condition, 
I am as yet unable to classify it. Fine specimens of the coastal 
Agave of this portion of Cuba (A. Legrelliana) were secured. 
collected by Brother Leon during several years for his college; 
duplicates of most of these specimens have been contributed by 
him to our collections and we are indebted to him and to his 
associates at the Colegio de la Salle for kindness and hospitality. 
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