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MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN [Vol. 8, No. 2 



Rios Manapiare-Guaviarito, Territorio Amazonas. The first part of our report on 

 the plants of these two sandstone mountains likewise is in the hands of the 

 editors. 18 



Upon the completion of the Kaieteur and Tafelberg report, the New York Bo- 

 tanical Garden resumed its program of field excursions into the Guayana High- 

 land. The first H. R. Kunhardt-New York Botanical Garden Expedition was con- 

 ducted by Bassett Maguire, Louis Politi, and Bassett Maguire, Jr. to Cerro Sipapo 

 (Paraque) in the Rio Cuao, tributary of the Upper Orinoco in Amazonas. Nearly 

 three months were spent on its summit from October 1948 to February 1949. 



Immediately succeeding the first, the second Kunhardt-New York Botanical 

 Garden Expedition was sent specifically in search of Arun din aria schomburgkii, 

 which had not been recollected since its original discovery in 1839 by Robert 

 Schomburgk on the southeastern tip of Cerro Marahuaca. Maguire and Maguire 

 approached Marahuaca by way of the Cunucunuma, headwater stream of the Orinoco. 

 On the way, three days were spent on the north summit of Cerro Duida. On May 9, 

 1949 a large community of Arundinaria, the famous curata from which the Maqui- 

 ritare Indians make their blow-guns, was found along the base of Marahuaca's 

 enormous escarpment, high at 5500 feet altitude in the cloud forest of the south- 

 east talus slope. 



In 1950 the New York Botanical Garden Expedition returned to Amazonas. 

 Maguire, with Richard S. Cowan and John J. ^urdack, again spent eight days 

 on the north summit of Duida, from November 18 to November 25. Tate and Hitch- 

 cock had, from the South Escarpment, penetrated the mountain northward into 

 the large central valley drained by Cano Negro. The 1950 expedition worked 

 southward from its camp near the North Escarpment to the north ridges of Cano 

 Negro. 



To the north of Duida, fifteen miles across the forested valley of the Rio Cunu- 

 cunuma, is the completely escarpment-ringed Cerro Huachamacari, the "House of 

 the Maquiritare Gods," rising some 6500 feet above the valley floor. A tangential 

 ledge (somewhat similar to that on the face of Roraima's cliffs) traversing the 

 1500 foot South Escarpment, culminating in a 150 foot vertical erosion chimney, 

 provided a means of ascent. Thirteen days, from December 6 to December 18, 

 were spent on the summit. 



Closely successive explorations were then made to the summits of Cerro 

 Yapacana on the Orinoco (December 31 to January 6) and Cerro Moriche on the 

 Ventuarj (January 12 to January 21). 



Cowan and Wurdack extended the expedition of the New York Botanical Garden 

 to the further exploration of the enormous Serrania Paru from January 31 to Febru- 

 ary 17, 1951. The party succeeded in reaching the summit repeatedly, the northern 

 segment, Cerro Paru, which is separated from the greater portion of the plateau- 

 mountain by a deep canyon. 



From September 1947 through July 1948 Richard E.Schultes carried on explora- 

 tion in the Upper Rio Negro drainage of Brazil and Colombia. On further extended 

 exploration, he is in the same general region at the present writing. Schultes in 

 large measure has retraced the routes of Richard Spruce, recollecting much of the 

 Spruce materials and adding much new material of his own. In the course of his 

 explorations, Schultes had the opportunity to visit the Cerros Campana and Chiri- 

 biquete, neighboring sandstone mountains, both under 3000 feet in elevation, on 

 the upper Apaporis in Vaupes, Colombia. The botanical results are being pub- 



"Maguire, Bassett & p helps, Kathleen D. Botany of the Phelps' Venezuelan Guayana 

 Expedition — I. Territorio Amazonas. Bol. Soc. Venez. Ci. Nat. [in press.] 



