Hunt Institute Archives Text Discovery Platform

Page transcription

Berkeley 4, California
June 6, 1951

Mr. E. C. Hummel
4848 Imperial Highway
Inglewood, California

Dear Mr. Hummel:

Through Mr. Paul Hutchison, Botanist of this Botanical Garden,
exchange of plant material with you has, with my approval, been
under way for some time. I hope that this exchange has proved
of value to you as it has to us.

In the last fifteen years I have directed five plant hunting
expeditions in South America. We worked principally on the west
coast and brought back to Berkeley large collections of scientific
and other importance. These expeditions were largely financed by
private individuals who gave money to the University of California
for this purpose.

I propose to do more collecting this fall (September-January) in
Chile and nearby parts of Peru and Argentina if I can secure the
necessary funds. I want to take Mr. Hutchison with me in order to
emphasize collecting of new or little known cacti and mapping of
the cactus flora of western South America. We will operate mostly
in areas which are unknown botanically or where no one has paid
much attention to cacti.

We will collect herbarium specimens, living plants and seeds. All
these collections will be the property of this University. Living
plants and seeds will be grown in the Botanical Garden; surplus
material if and when available, will be sent on request to other
Botanical Gardens and to those financing the expedition.

For the last three months Mr. Hutchison has been compiling a list
of localities where collecting should be important and I am sending
him east in a few weeks to get more information in herbaria there.
As a result we ought to be better prepared than anyone who has gone
to Chile and adjacent regions in the past to select the most critical
areas for cactus collecting. My long acquaintance with government
officials and membership in scientific societies in Peru, Chile and
Argentina will assure maximum local cooperation, something important
in South America.

The cost of transportation to and from and in South America, of
maintenance there, of hire of local assistants, guides and pack trains
and of air express of living plants to Berkeley will total $4800. I
hope that you may wish to provide this sum or a substantial part of
Such donation will be received and acknowledged by the Regents of the
University, will be expended only on my requisition and will be deduct-
ible from income tax.

THG:T
Sincerely,