9701893 Regalado The International Research Fellow Awards Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twelve-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Jacinto C. Regalado, Jr. to work with Dr. Jan F. Veldkamp at the Rijksherbarium in Leiden in the Netherlands. While at Leiden, Dr. Regalado will work with Dr. Veldkamp on the taxonomic revision of Medinilla, a large and complex genus from New Guinea. This study will update our understanding of the genus, which is based on scattered and outdated papers published during the first half of the century. The taxonomic problems caused by the loss of type specimens during the destruction of the Berlin herbarium will be treated by assigning neotypes or lectotypes from duplicate specimens found in the herbaria at Kew, Paris, Geneva, Florence and Stockholm. The revision will include keys to species, species descriptions, illustrations, habitat information, and geographic distributions. In addition, Dr. Regalado will work with other Melastomataceae specialists in Europe, Dr. Roger Lundin of Sweden, Dr. Anton Weber of Austria, and Ms. Gudron Clausing of Germany. They will produce a synoptic checklist of the family. That checklist, will serve as a precursor to a monographic treatment of the family for the Flora Malesiana project based at the Rijksherbarium. ***