Caracas, July 27, 1930 
Dr. 3. F. Blake, 
Bureau of Plant Industry, 
United States Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D.C. 
Dear Dr. Blake; 
I have received your last list of iden¬ 
tifications and I am very thankful for it. Little by 
little we are getting to the end of those Compositae 
of former collections which had not been named. 
I thank you also for the descriptions 
of B erberi s. I have not had time so far to try to iden¬ 
tify the Venezuelan species we have in our herbarium. 
I suspect that among the species described by Hieronymus 
and others several will have to be reduced to the rank 
of synonyms. The same is probably the case with seve¬ 
ral suposed species of Securidaca . I have not been 
able to identify my Venezuelan species. The specimens 
at hand I have keyed easily taking the flower and fruit 
characters, but as the old descriptions do not contain 
details as to these parts and the characters derived 
from the leaves are very uncertain and mixed up, it is 
not possible to establish relations between the speci¬ 
mens and those old species. Moreover I think I have one 
or two new species. 
As you say, the specimens collected by 
3aer are not always very good. His last collections, 
however, have improved very much. I understand he 
wanted to make a general study of the flora of the State 
of Lara and for this reason he has been collecting more 
actively of late. But I am told that he is to be 
married in these days and will come and live near Valen¬ 
cia, which will necessary be the end of his work in 
Lara. 
With regard to Gehriger r s plants, I am 
going to send you a first lot of them, as it seems to 
me that they are a necessary complement to the pther col 
