
COOK AND COLLINS—ECONOMIC PLANTS OF PORTO RICO. 6] 
are not omitted from their places in the natural sequence. Several 
new species are described, and the probable existence of others is 
often suggested. 
The second of these sketches and the most important contribution 
to the botany of Porto Rico is the Flora % projected by Dr. A. Stahl, of 
Bayamon, but unfortunately only partially published. Although of 
German paternity Dr. Stahl is a native of Porto Rico, and his scien- 
tific achievements are the result of tireless energy and perseverance 
under the most discouraging circumstances. Not only did he receive 
no public or official assistance or encouragement in the self-imposed 
task of making known the flora of the island, but his scientific labors 
drew upon him instead the suspicions of the government, and resulted 
in imprisonment and banishment on three or four oceasions, without 
the satisfaction of even an alleged reason for his arbitrary ill treatment. 
In spite of publie indifference and official animosity six parts of the 
Flora were issued, at the expense of the author, having been prepared 
in the intervals of his professional life as a physician. Publication 
ceased in 1888, and Dr. Stahl no longer hopes to continue the work. 
In addition to his botanical studies Dr. Stahl has written and made 
collections bearing upon medieal, archeological, and zoological sub- 
jects, and has well earned the distinction of being the first resident 
Porto Rican naturalist. The common names of Dr. Stahl’s Flora 
appear also in Professor De la Maza’s Diccionario,’ in which other 
names not yet reported from Porto Rico have been found and verified. 
Further acknowledgement is due to Capt. Arthur C. Hansard, a 
retired English officer, for several years resident in the northeastern 
part of the island. <A list of native names previously published by 
him in the San Juan ‘News was carefully copied and the author then 
most obligingly revised and extended it, submitting as well to many 
questions which his extended residence and previous travels in other 
tropical countries rendered him particularly qualified to answer. 
Apparently unknown to subsequent writers, a much more extended 
list containing the popular names of nearly 200 Porto Rican woods, 
with data regarding density, size, color, texture, and uses had appeared 
as a catalogue of a collection exhibited at the Agricultural Exhibition 
held in Madrid in 1857. This list has been safely preserved and 
securely hidden away in a bulky quarto volume entitled Memoria 
sobre los Productos de la Agricultura espanola reunidos en la Expo- 
sicion general de 1857, published in Madrid between 1859 and 1861, 
and containing over 1,200 pages. The Porto Riean woods occur on 
pages 470 to 477 and are interjected among other material with which 
there is little apparent connection. Neither is there any statement as 
to the authorship or origin of the list, nor is it surprising that Maza, 

“Stahl, A. Estudios para la flora de Puerto-Rico. 1884-1888. 
Manuel Gomez de la Maza. Diccionario botanico de los nombres vulgares 
cubanos y puerto-riquefios. 
