20 carnegie; institution of Washington. 



Statement of The present status of the insurance fund of the Institu- 



Insurance Fund, tion is shown by the following statement : 



Appropriation for the year 1909 $15,000 



Appropriation for the year 1910 10,000 



Accrued interest, 1909 450 



Accrued interest, 1910 843 



Insurance receivd February, 1910, for fire loss of quarters 



of Solar Observatory 3,990 



Insurance receivd March, 1910, for loss by fire of chemicals 



and apparatus in laboratory of Dr. T. B. Osborne 727 



31,010 

 Allotment for rebuilding the quarters of Solar Observatory, 

 made March, 1910 10,000 



Amount of fund on hand 21,010 



RESUME OF INVESTIGATIONS OF THE YEAR. 



Work in the ten specially organizd departments of research in the Insti- 

 tution has gone forward during the year with increasing vigor and with in- 

 creasing productivity. All of these novel establishments 



mentsof Research" ma ^ ^ e Sa ^ t0 ^ ave nOW P ast ^ e P renm i nar y stages of 

 organization, equipment, and tentativ experience, so that 



henceforth their efforts and resources may be still more effectivly directed 



and applied. Most of the departments have been strengthend during the year 



by additions to the staffs of investigators and by accessions to equipment and 



other facilities, some of which latter have come thru the generosity of friends, 



who have thus shown their appreciation of departmental researches. 



But while the existing status of departmental affairs is in general highly 

 satisfactory, it appears essential to again call attention to the fact that with 

 present income and current economic conditions no further expansion of de- 

 partmental appropriations can be expected. It may be necessary, on the con- 

 trary, to curtail research in the departments in order to keep the aggregate 

 expense of the Institution within income. It need not follow, however, that 

 this prospectiv diminution in financial outlay will cause a corresponding dimi- 

 nution of productivity, for work of investigation, like work along other novel 

 lines, is usually most costly in the preliminary stages. 



Referring to the current Year Book for interesting and instructiv details 

 in the reports of the directors of departments, some of the salient features of 

 their activities are summarizd in the following paragrafs. 



It is a maxim in the pursuit of physical science to proceed from the 

 simpler to the more complex in any attempt to discover the relation among 

 observd facts. In accordance with this maxim, the 

 Bohmical'^esear h ne dquarters of the Department of Botanical Research are 

 located in a desert area where the facts of plant life are 

 exhibited, in general, in their simplest, tho often extreme and highly special- 

 ized, relations. But even under these favorable conditions plant life presents 



