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In addition to field observations of the endemics and studies of their chromosome numbers, we tried to make
a complete taxonomical review of all the Slovenian endemics, and studied them morphologically and chorologically
in great detail. A thorough study of their distribution, including mapping, is being made by Ernest Mayer. These
studies are being coordinated with similar studies in the central and western Alps by Professor Cl. Favarger and his
students in Neuchatel in Switzerland, the foremost specialist on the cytotaxonomy of the Alpique flora, and with
studies of endemics and alpine plants from Spain and Italy performed but not yet published by A. and D. Love and
on alpine plants from the arctic regions of Atlantic Europe by the American P. I.s and Dr. Knaben. Although all
the Slovenian endemics were under study already this first season, special attention was given the following
complexes and taxa, which may serve as examples.

a. Iris cengialti Ambr. and I. illyrica Tommas. These are taxa of the eastern Alps and of the coastal
mountains of the northern Adriatic. Although morphologically and geographically distinct, these species have been
known to cross and give rise to apparently fertile hybrids, and on the basis of morphology some botanists in the past
have regarded them as races only of the much more widespread European Iris pallida Lam. Our chromosome studies
do not contradict this conclusion, since all these races are characterized by the same number (2n = 24) and at least
very similar morphology of chromosomes. However, a more detailed study of already available artificial hybrids
will be performed before a final conclusion is reached, although the present evidence seems to be in favor of
regarding them only as minor geographical races, or varieties, of a single species.

b. Aconitum angustifolium Bernh. This taxon of the eastern Alps has recently (by Tutin in Flora Europaea)
been regarded as a doubtful variation, which some others have even thought of as a possible hybrid between A.
variegatum L. and A. compactum Rehb. Our studies showed it to be a hexaploid which is possibly derived from the
diploid and tetraploid species just mentioned. No further investigation is needed for its acceptance as a good endemic
species, although more work has to be done before its mode of evolution can be ascertained.

c. Papaver julicum Mayer & Merxmüller. Our studies of the cytology of this taxon have confirmed that
it is a diploid belonging to the diploid complex C. alpinum L., most closely related to its subsp. sendtneri (Kerner)
Schinz & Keller. Our preliminary observations seem to indicate that its correct evolutionary status may be as a
variety of this major race, but hybridization experiments may be required before that question can be definitely
settled.

d. Pastinaca fleischmannii Hladnik. This taxon was discovered on the slopes of Castle Mountain in
Ljubljana more than 150 years ago and brought into the Botanical Garden. There it survives thanks to help from
the gardeners, but it is extinct on the mountain. We have found it to be cytologically identical with P. sativa, of
which it is apparently a one-gene mutation, so it is most correctly regarded as a genetically deviating deme or local
population of interest mainly as the lowest observable level of endemism.

e. Hladnikia pastinacifolia Rchb. This umbelliferous genus is one of the most distinct endemics in Europe,
met with only near the eastern and western borders of the Trnovski Gozd, which is the southernmost part of the
Slovenian Alps in the karst region. We studied it from various points of view with Professor Susnik and are working
on a comprehensive report of the taxonomical, chemotaxonomical, morphological, ecological, and chorological
characteristics of this monotypic genus. These studies seem to confirm earlier opinions that this is a relic
paleoendemic of such a distinction that even our detailed methods are not able to reveal its relationship to any other
genus of the family anywhere in the world.

f. Gentiana froelichii Jan. The American Principal Investigators have long been working on the
reclassification of the collective genus Gentiana, a work in which they have cooperated with Swedish and Japanese
specialists. Ernest Mayer of the Slovenian team has also been interested in the subdivision of this taxon into more
natural genera, on morphological and chorological grounds. Through his help and that of our other Yugoslav
colleagues we became well acquainted with several of the groups represented in Yugoslavia. Our attention was
especially directed to taxa in the Himalaya and other southern mountains. Of these species we became especially