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Allen, horticulturist in charge of the Balboa "botanic garden". Along with the peat, he gave me several rare palm seeds for the National Herbarium.

For packing the scientific collections that I had made in the Galapagos Islands Captain Picking offered me the very excellent facilities available at Coco Solo, where I spent May 2nd and 3rd, returning to Panama on Sunday, the 4th. As the connecting plane from South America was delayed, departure of the plane was postponed until Monday afternoon, the 5th. Leaving at 2 p.m., we arrived at Miami that night at 9 p.m. Here my [[underlined]] Rooseveltia [[/underlined]] palm seeds were taken over by the plant quarantine inspector. I therefore went down to the Miami office the next morning to make arrangements for the shipment of these unique seeds to Washington. This matter was very kindly taken care of by Mr. Gist, who happened to be the inspector who came to Pensacola in 1938 to pass the plant collections I brought back with me from the Presidential Cruise of that year. Bill Merrill asked especially to be remembered to you.

During the few hours remaining before departure of the Washington plane at 2 p.m., I called on Captain John W. Mills, of the Carnegie Institution's Tortugas Laboratory, now retired, to consult with him regarding available motor boats, particularly those on sale by the Carnegie Institution, as they have in actual performance proven eminently suitable for a laboratory such as it is proposed to establish in the Galapagos Islands.

We arrived in Washington at 8:40 p.m. on May 6th and I reported for duty at the National Museum at 9 o'clock the next morning.

Recommendations regarding the proposed laboratory and other facilities are being prepared for your attention, as well as a draft of the agreement covering the cooperative scientific studies to be entered into by the United States and Ecuador.

Respectfully,
[[signature]]
Waldo L. Schmitt, Curator,
Division of Marine Invertebrates.
WLS:LMc