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The expedition is under the direction of Mr. Herbert H. 

 Smith, recently curator of the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburg. Mr. 

 Smith is well and favorably known as a collector in tropical lands, 

 having begun collecting in 1870 as an assistant to Prof. C. T. 

 Hartt on the " Morgan Expedition," and later collected for the 

 Brazilian Geological Survey. In 1878-9 he made two trips to 

 Brazil for Scribner & Co., writing a series of articles for their 

 magazine. Beginning in 1882, five years were spent in the cen- 

 tral region of South America. Two more were spent in Mexico 

 exploring and collecting for the " Biologia Centrali- Americana." 

 The three years following were devoted to the Caribbean Islands 

 in the interests of the West India Joint Committee of the Royal 

 Society and the British Association. A collection of plants were 

 also made in the West Indies for the Royal Gardens at Kew. 

 With all these duties he has found time to write several volumes 

 of travel. 



Mr. Smith will be accompanied by several capable assistants, 

 who will take charge of various parts of the work. The botanical 

 collecting will be under the supervision of Prof. Carl F. Baker, of 

 Auburn, Ala. In distributing the collections, the flowering plants 

 and the ferns will be made up into separate sets and sold sepa- 

 rately if desired. The ferns will be named by Prof. L. M. Under- 

 wood, and it is expected that the first hundred specimens will be 

 ready early in 1899. Each specimen will be accompanied by label 

 and full data, and in all cases will contain enough material to prop- 

 erly represent all parts of the plant. They will be sold at the 

 uniform rate of ten cents a specimen, delivered in New York or 

 Pittsburg. Orders for the ferns should be addressed to Willard 

 N. Clute, 63 East 49th street. New York City. The ferns will be 

 distributed in lots of a hundred each as fast as they can be named. 

 Orders for the complete sets will be booked in the order they are 

 received, and the early ones will get the more complete sets in 

 case there are not enough of any one species for all. Orders for 

 less than complete sets will be received, but in such cases the se- 

 lection of the specimens will be made by the collectors. Sub- 

 scribers pay no money until the first hundred plants are ready, 

 and then only pay for the plants as delivered. The interest and 

 value that will attach to these first collections will render com- 

 plete sets very desirable, and no delay should be made by any 

 who wish them. Further information regarding sets of either the 

 ferns or flowering plants will be furnished to those interested 

 upon application. 



