Staff Studies Plant Life In West Indies

nounced the beginning of work on a manual about Southeast American plants. This sort of project--which will take ten years despite the Herbarium's facilities--would have been nearly impossible with former equipment.

Before the new building was constructed we never could have even imagined such a vast project," Rollins said. Another tentative iron in the fire made possible by the merger is the proposal for the Horbarium to join forces with an international botanical association for work on a definitive Plant Encyclopedia. A project like this, according to Rollins, may take 20 years.

Two projects on which the staff are already working are surveys of the flora of the West Indies and of China.

University botanists must survey plants in Jamaica before aluminum companies begin their strip mining operation in search of bauxite ore. Following the mining also, the botanists, headed by Howard, outline a plan for the rehabilitation of the Island's plant life.

The botanists have four major collections to help them in these projects. The largest, the Gray collection, has more than 1,350,000 plant specimens from all over the world. It includes the New England Botany Club collection of all New England Botany Club collection of all New England plants. Most of the non-horticultural specimens brought in from the Arnold Arboretum are from Southeastern Asia. The Orchid collection of Oakes Ames, and fossil plant collection of the Botannical Museum are also now housed in the Herbarium.

Thus the merger in the new and functional building has brought together the long-famed Harvard collections so that forthcoming projects may soon place the University ahead of its every rival in botanical research. Its reputation in the Western Hemisphere may quickly extend around the globe.