30 



THE PLANT WORLD. 



densatlon of the time-factor, about the action of which in 

 the major movements of plants we know but little. 



Let us consider the Salton experiment, for it comes quite 

 as opportunely to the workers of the Desert Laboratory, as 

 if we had ourselves poured the two and a half cubic miles of 

 water into the Colorado desert covering 500 square miles of 

 its surface and totally exterminating the plants living there. 

 The moist zone v.hich comes from the saturated soil fringing 

 the shore of the new lake now offers suitable conditions for 



Figure 1. Map showing position and form of Salton sea in south- 

 ern California. 



certain halophytes instead of the xerophytes previously found 

 there while the still broader fringe of humid air favors the 

 growth of species not hitherto native to the basin. To this 

 region there travel the seeds of plants of a half dozen states 

 by the waters of the inpouring Colorado, wafted upon the 

 wind currents and taken here and there by animals, so that 

 theoretically and actually thousands of species of plants are 

 testing these new habitat conditions as suitable places for 

 residence. 



