REPORT OF NATIONAL. MUSEUM, 1924 63 



land Vaughan, custodian of madreporarian corals, until his depart- 

 ure from Washington to become director of the Scripps Institute 

 at La Jolla, Calif., worked on the recent corals. 



Austin H. Clark, curator of echinoderms, during the past year 

 continued work on part 3 of Bulletin No. 82, which is now about 

 three-quarters done. It is expected that the manuscript will be fin- 

 ished before the end of the next fiscal year as the work remaining on 

 it has been practically completed except for reduction to typewritten 

 form. In addition, part 4 is well under way, and the present indi- 

 cations are that its completion will follow that of part 3 within a 

 year. This part will contain an account of the stalked crinoids, 

 which are relatively few in numbers. 



Special investigations begun or continued during the year in the 

 division of plants are as follows : Dr. Frederick V. Coville, curator, 

 has continued his studies in the breeding and propagation of blue- 

 berries (V actinium) , giving especial attention to certain species oc- 

 curring in Florida. In this connection he has made frequent use of 

 the herbarium; Dr. J. N. Rose, associate curator, has continued and 

 brought to practical completion his studies of the family Cactaceae 

 in cooperation with Dr. N. L. Britton, director in chief of the New 

 York Botanical Garden, the fourth and concluding volume of the 

 monograph The Cactaceae having appeared in December, 1923. In 

 cooperation with Doctor Britton he has begun a study of the family 

 Caesalpinaceae ; Dr. William R. Maxon, associate curator, has con- 

 tinued his work upon the peteridophyta of tropical America, giving 

 special attention to ferns of the West Indies. Several papers have 

 been published relating to the ferns of Hispaniola, and preparation 

 of manuscript upon the ferns of Porto Rico has been begun; Paul 

 C. Standley, associate curator, was absent for nearly half of the* year 

 in Central America, engaged in obtaining data for the Flora of Cen- 

 tral America upon which he is working. Material was obtained also 

 for an account of the flora of the Canal Zone, which is in course of 

 preparation. Much of his time was devoted also to study of collec- 

 tions forwarded for identification from Mexico and Central America, 

 and descriptions of several new genera and many new species were 

 published in a series of papers relating to the flora of Salvador. He 

 has prepared an enumeration of the Salvador flora which it is ex- 

 pected will be published in Salvador in the near future; Emery C. 

 Leonard, aid, has completed his study of the genus Scutellaria as 

 represented in North America, and has continued work upon the 

 botany of the West Indies, more especially the collections obtained 

 in the Dominican Republic in recent years by Dr. W. L. Abbott. He 

 has undertaken also a critical study of the mosses of the District of 

 Columbia; Ellsworth P. Killip, aid, has continued his studies of 

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