SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
UNITED STAGES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
March 10, 1927. 
Or. A. Wetraore, 
Assistant Secretary, 
Smithsonian Institution. 
My dear Doctor Wetmore: 
As you are leaving for Hispaniola very shortly I 
thought perhaps you might like to see my account of 
Neciahbotl^, a new genus which I described from this 
island several years ago. I do not care for any ad¬ 
ditional material of this plant from the southwestern 
part of the island, but the same plant, or a closely 
related species, is found farther north, and if you 
could get some photographs and branches and, if possible, 
flowers I should be very glad to have them. 
When I was in Philadelphia during the Holidays I 
saw in the herbarium at the Academy a poor specimen col¬ 
lected by Poiteau on these islands about 1789, which 
has not since been collected. It was described in 1803 
as a new species of Inga and afterwards transferred to 
the genus Fithec olob i um, but the specimen shows that it 
does not belong to either genus, and possibly may be an 
undescribed one. If you wish, I will send you a photo¬ 
graph of the specimen in Philadelphia and also of the 
published illustration. It is possible that you or Doc¬ 
tor Abbott may be able to locate the plant. It certainly 
would be a most interesting and important thing to do. 
Yours very truly, 
Associate Curator, 
Division of Plants. 
