179 Canberra New Guinea project 6-7 years, Robins (who replaced Taylor) 3-4 years. Most of C.S.I.R.O. in unimpressive temporary buildings. Regional Surveys has its own small herbarium building, housing separate New Guinea and Northern Territory collections. Canberra has another herbarium in C.S.I.R.O. (Plant Industry ?) and a fourth at the Forestry School. Hoogland has assembled a useful but still limited Library. Would rather be working in a big institution with good library and collections; would perhaps return to Flora Malesiana but for his Australian wife, who does not like the Dutch climate. An assistant botanist being advertised for (one applicant is van Royen, lately of Flora Malesiana). Ru has done no field work in New Guinea for two years; returns this year, probably to Middle Sepik. Recently spent nearly a year at Leiden, revising the Cunoniaceae for Flora Malesiana. Indonesia has not resumed financial support of Flora Malesiana. Dutch Government putting up the money. When Britain recently began giving £2000 a year, the Dutch Govt. reduced its grant by that sum. Relations good between Dutch botanists and Bogor, and collections being exchanged. Indonesia would resume financial support of Flora Malesiana if the project were moved out of Holland, and there has been a proposal to shift it to Brussels. Robins a very serious little man who finds the New Guinea vegetation hard to understand. His official duties require merely a mapping and description of forest types of potential economic importance - as far as I can make out (e.g. Entsia forest, Fagaceae forest). He has a personal interest in broad classification of the vegetation. We are to meet again tomorrow. Hoogland took me to the Dutch Embassy, where New Guinea attache Smit was very cordial. Scraps of new information on the unsuccessful Star Mts. expedition are that Mts. Juliana and Antares were climbed; sickness, including "jaundice" in the helicopter crews, was a handicap; one section of the retreating party walked overland from the slopes of the Star Mts. to Hollandia. (Hoogland says the expedition was "over organized"). A French movie expedition is striking across the mountains from high on the Digul in Dutch N.G. to somewhere on the upper Sepik. Wednesday, January 20. Most of the day spent with Robbins, discussing New Guinea plant communities (he doing most of the talking), looking at maps, photos, and air mosaics. The air photos were made at 25,000 ft. for topographic mapping and even over the 5000-10,000 ft. highlands are too high for easy recognition of vegetation types. Nothofagus forests do, however, stand out as dark velvety patches on some of the photos. Their distribution, if Robbins' photo recognition is to be trusted, is scattered and mainly on S or SE slopes. Much less Nothofagus on the Bismarcks than on the Ruber. Robbins considers that the forest types go about 1000 ft. higher on Mt. Wilhelm than on the other high mountains of the area (Hagen and Gilowe). Some of his views on classification of major communities have changed since we corresponded on the subject a couple of years ago, and more nearly approach mine, but I feel he still has no proper understanding of the uppermost forests on the mountains. Through Hoogland's intercession, and special permission from the government department concerned I have been allowed to have a copy of the cyclostyled preliminary report of the C.S.I.R.O. land research team on "The Goroka - Mt. Hagen area, New Guinea." I am asked not to show it to anyone else, and not to quote from it. Restrictions seem very ridiculous.