BOTANICAL EXPLORATION IN COLOMBIA 



By ELLSWORTH P. KILLIP 



Associate Curator, Division of Plants, U. S. National Museum 



For a period of more than 20 years special study of the flora of 

 Colombia has been carried on at the Smithsonian Institution, in the 

 course of which four expeditions have been sent to that country. 

 Three of these were made between 191 7 and 1927 and were organ- 

 ized in collaboration with other institutions of the United States. The 

 most recent field trip was made in 1939 and was sponsored jointly by 

 the Institute Botanico, of Bogota, and the Smithsonian Institution. 



The little-explored Pacific littoral, including the western slope of 

 the Western Cordillera, was the principal objective of this trip. How- 

 ever, our plans called for spending a short time at the Institute 

 Botanico and for revisiting the Quindio region, in the Central Cordil- 

 lera, where grow the celebrated wax palms. 



Arriving at the Pacific port of Buenaventura February 1, I was 

 soon joined by Dr. Hernando Garcia y Barriga, of the Institute By 

 a stroke of good fortune it was possible almost at once to visit Gor- 

 gona Island, a night's travel to the southwest of Buenaventura. The 

 rich vegetation of this island was described as early as 1850, and 

 very recently Dr. Robert Cushman Murphy, of the American Museum 

 of Natural History, has given a fascinating account of its dense 

 forests. Through the courtesy of Sefior Marciel Lemos, Administra- 

 tor of the Customs, we were invited to be passengers on the Andagoya, 

 a government vessel which makes trips to the island at 8-month inter- 

 vals to replace the acetylene cylinders at the lighthouse on nearby 

 Gorgonilla Island. Here we anchored for 3 days while the crew labori- 

 ously lifted, by means of a pulley, the numerous cylinders up a nearly 

 vertical cliff 300 feet high, carrying them along the crest to the light- 

 house about a mile distant. Collecting along the shore and in the 

 dense forest on the crest was exceptionally rich. Equally so was the 

 interior of Gorgona itself, which we visited later while at anchor off 

 the east coast. 



Returning to Buenaventura, we next visited Bahia Solano, up the 

 coast more than halfway to the Panamanian boundary. At the south 

 shore of this bay an agricultural colony, Ciudad Mutis, has recently 

 been established, which it is hoped will eventually develop into an 

 important seaport. Though our time here unfortunately was limited 



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