DEPARTMENT OF BOTANICAL RESEARCH. 57 



are now growing in pure culture in solid and liquid media in the botanical 

 laboratory of Stanford University, and their behavior, with relation to the 

 changes in their environment, is being studied. A study of these organisms, 

 living in brines sufficiently concentrated to serve as preservatives for highly 

 putrescible substances, should throw a certain amount of light on the osmotic 

 relations of plants and animals to their surroundings ; and the rapid changes 

 through which these organisms successfully pass, without apparent injury, 

 must modify our notions of the adaptability of living things. 



A series of soil examinations of exposed strands was made by Mr. E. E. 

 Free, of the Bureau of Soils of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. These 

 studies have been made on the assumption that the distribution and move- 

 ment of plants thereon might be influenced to an important degree by the 

 local character of the soils and especially by variations in the amount of solu- 

 ble salts ("alkali") which they contain. Detailed examinations have there- 

 fore been made of the soil and alkali conditions on the waste sand-terraces 

 near Travertine Point, the sandy beaches between Salton Station and the 

 mouth of Salt Creek, the net beaches on the two larger islands, and the 

 broad dry plain southwest of Imperial Junction. The studies of the last 

 locality have been especially careful and detailed. The results show that the 

 distribution of the excessive salt on a single beach is in general quite uni- 

 form, though different localities may differ widely from one another as a 

 result of differences in soil-texture or underground conditions. The local 

 distribution of vegetation on any particular beach is not, therefore, a func- 

 tion of the salt-content of the soil. The soil-texture and minor features of the 

 topography (especially the drainage-lines) have, however, an important influ- 

 ence on this distribution, mainly because of their control of water-supply. 



Visits to the shores of the lake were made in June and October for the 

 purpose of following the variations in the vegetation of the strands. An 

 examination of the steep slopes rising from near the present level of the 

 water to near the highest ancient level disclosed 83 strands or beaches. Some 

 of these were especially well marked, and these were seen at high levels, 

 indicating that the basin has been filled to sea-level, or nearly so, within a 

 few hundred years, and perhaps more than once recently. 



INVESTIGATIONS. 

 Climatology of American Deserts (by Dr. Ellsworth Huntington) : 



During the spring of 1910 Professor Ellsworth Huntington, of Yale Uni- 

 versity, cooperated with the Desert Laboratory in a geographic study of the 

 deserts of southern Arizona and northern Mexico, as compared with those 

 of Asia. The chief problems were naturally climatic. Field-work was car- 

 ried on during March, April, and May. From Tucson trips were made in 

 all directions, in company with Dr. MacDougal or Mr. Sykes. 



Two river systems, each nearly 200 miles long, were selected for compara- 

 tive study, namely, the Santa Cruz, running northward past Tucson to the 



