/O SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



to 2 days, we were able to collect about 200 "numbers" in the dense 

 forest which surrounds the colony to the south and east. 



Our trip to the Pacific littoral being for the time terminated, we 

 proceeded from Buenaventura to Cali, the principal city of the thriving 

 Cauca Valley. Here arrangements had been made by officials of the 

 Department of El Valle for us to use as headquarters the thoroughly 

 up-to-date School of Tropical Agriculture, one of several agricul- 

 tural schools established in Colombia in recent years. Excursions 

 were made to two points in the Western Cordillera during this stay, 

 one to San Antonio, at the crest of the Divide, the other to Yanaconas. 

 It was a pleasure to have as a guide to San Antonio Mrs. Edith 

 Dryander, whose specimens, obtained mainly from the Cali region 

 and sent to the Botanisches Museum at Berlin, have been the types 

 of many new species. 



Dr. Garcia and I made the trip from Cali to Bogota by plane in 

 an hour and a half, crossing the Central Cordillera, with its magnifi- 

 cent snow-topped peaks of Tolima and Ruiz, and the Magdalena 

 Valley. Bogota, situated on a plateau in the Eastern Cordillera at 

 an altitude of about 9,600 feet, was my general headquarters for the 

 greater part of March, and I had ample opportunity of becoming ac- 

 quainted with the interesting suburb, University City, to which the 

 National University is being gradually transferred. The dominant 

 building is the Botanical Institute, in which are housed the National 

 Herbarium and, for the present, the zoological and entomological col- 

 lections of the nation. The establishment of this important scientific 

 institution has been due largely to the energy and enthusiasm of 

 Dr. Enrique Perez Arbelaez, chief botanist of Colombia, who has been 

 amply supported by the three recent National Administrations. Not 

 only is the botanical equipment here most adequate, but the director 

 has assembled on his staff many of the leading young botanists of 

 the country. 



On reaching Bogota on March 7, I found that A. H. G. Alston, 

 of the British Museum (Natural History), had just arrived from 

 Caracas, having driven over the remarkable trans-Andean Highway. 

 We decided to join forces for the next few weeks, making use of his 

 truck to visit regions made easily accessible by the construction of 

 good roads in recent years. Our main joint excursion was to Villa- 

 vicencio, the gateway to the vast lowlands of eastern Colombia, about 

 a 6-hour drive from Bogota. Daily side-trips from this base gave an 

 opportunity of collecting on the grassy llanos, in the palm jungles, and 

 along the banks of the Guatiquia and Ocoa Rivers. 



