HITCHCOCK ANT> \SE LIBRARtf 
Smithsonian institution 
Two or 
thre\ye8rs ago the office of Forf*<». Seed and Plant Introd. sent a meFioranriiin 
to th#^Gr-s,ss Herbarium asking where seed of Paspalum virpatum could be secured. 
An expe^-iiTient station In Australia wanted to try it. This perticular grass Is 
avoided '^y stock for some reason — I've seen great clumps of it in Porto Rico 
and Brezt^ standing untouched where cattle were grazing other grasses all about 
it. So I^egen^a search —books, agricultural journals, bulletins, indexes, and 
the herbarium^ and finally found out that an excellent forage grass Paspalum 
Urville^ inti»^duced from South iimerica into our Gulf States, had been introduced 
/nto English cbQ.orJ.es in Africa imder the name Paspalum virgatum, and the 
'^iustralie.n obviously got the name from some British publication. This infor- 
mation was sent t6,F. S. P. I. If the matter had not been looked up the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture would have QDne to the trouble of securing seed of a 
worthless gr ss and \he Australian ilxperiment station would have wt sted time and 
effort raising a plot*\of it. 'lliis gives only a hint — our work has to do with 
the identity of grasse^ all over the world, and we identify saae 10 to Ig 
thousand specimens eve r^ year. To know the grasses one must study them not only 
in the h rbarium -snd frok books but where they grow. For this reason Professor 
Hitchcock has explored in \the last 30 years pr&ctiofaiy all the United States, 
Ala ska , Mexico, Central iimerica and the Central Andes, Hawaiian Islands, Philip- 
pines, Japan, eastern and so^^thern China, and south and ea'^.t Africa. I h^ve been 
over e good part of the Unite^ States; made one trip to Porlft Rico ana two to 
3raz il . \ / .iw^^^C p-^^i^ J -Ct^ 
be flora of Brazil hngppeirs- tro-have,^^peci8l 
importance because tlie earliest extensi ve collection of plants in tl:ie Western 
