13 



easily accessible areas in this simple manner whenever they have 

 opportunity for field work the accuracy of the foregoing statistics 

 can be checked up, and at the same time significant similarities 

 and differences, that are hardly suspected now, between different 

 regions will be brought out. 

 College Point, L. I. 



TYPE, COTYPE, AND TOPOTYPE LABELS 



By E. D. Merrill 



In all large herbaria that are rich in type material, the curator 



is confronted with the problem of properly indicating the im- 

 portant specimens, that is, those that are the actual types of 

 species, co types of species, or in "collective species" those 

 specimens that conform to the original type of the species as 

 described, and agree with it as to origin. It is scarcely enough 

 to indicate on the specimen that it is a type or a cotype, merely 

 by writing these words on the sheet or on the label. Where one 

 has to examine numerous sheets, as is frequently the case in 

 large herbaria, before locating the critical specimen he is searching 

 for, some special supplementary label is needed, one that is suf- 

 ficiently prominent to attract the immediate attention of the 

 herbarium worker. 



In the Bureau of Science for a number of years the herbarium 

 was stored in a wooden frame building, and one in which a large 

 amount of chemical work was done. The danger of fire was 

 always present. As the herbarium increased in size and value, 

 and as the number of types and cotypes increased in number, it 

 was felt that the critical material should be placed in a safer 

 place. Accordingly all types and cotypes of Philippine species 

 were segregated from the general herbarium, and stored in 

 special cases which were in turn placed in a practically fireproof 

 part of the Bureau of Science building. As to the number of 

 specimens thus segregated, it is approximately 4,500 sheets. At 

 the time the specimens were being segregated, each one was 

 labelled wnth a special type or cotype label, as the case might be, 



