Letters written by Margaret Willis during a sabbatical term spent in South America, Michaelmas 1931. In the first letter, dated 1 September, she says 'Kew has filled me with zeal on their behalf - they can use anything I do - pressed plants, photos, drawings - - - '. The first two letters were written on board ship, commenting on life on board and on fellow passengers. The remainder are addressed from Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina. M W describes travel, trips and visits; and she comments on local flora and fauna and on details of local life. She refers in many of the letters to a journal which she wrote at the same time, sending it home in instalments. For example, on 3 September: ‘I have seen lots of exciting things - flying fish & a whale spouting - - - which you will find described in my journal. I am sending it separately’; and on 16 November: ‘Macchu Picchu is the most thrilling place imaginable. I still haven’t finished writing it up in my journal’. [Thus it appears that the journal contained much more detail about the trip and its research-related elements than the letters. It is not known whether the journal survives but it is not held as part of this collection.]