Future of Botanical Research in Alaska— Wiggins 117 



anatomy, and genetics as applied to Alaskan plants appeared 

 only recently or are yet to appear in any appreciable degree. 

 The cytology of some Alaskan plants was touched lightly by 

 the work of Clausen, Keck, and Hiesey (3). Their transplant 

 work and the investigation of the cytotaxonomy of Achillea, 

 and their breeding program involving various grasses, included 

 Alaskan material. They hope that the use of plants from north- 

 ern regions may help solve several problems in the cytotaxon- 

 omy and in the breeding of range grasses for higher and more 

 prolonged yield under adverse conditions. Added impetus to 

 the work in the cytology and cytotaxonomy of northern plants 

 has been furnished, also, by the researches of Askell and Doris 

 Love, in their papers dealing with the chromosome numbers in 

 arctic plants and in critical considerations of particular species 

 in high northern latitudes (10, 11). Although they did not 

 work in Alaska nor directly on material from Alaska, many of 

 the species on which they reported are members of the Alaskan 

 arctic and subarctic flora. This papers will, therefore, be of 

 importance to botanists wishing to check the cytotaxonomic 

 characteristics of arctic plants of the North American continent 

 with those bearing the same names but growing in European 

 areas. Some such comparative work has already been started 

 in an attempt to determine whether certain Alaskan plants are 

 identical with those bearing the same names in the European 

 regions or merely similar in external appearances. 



Plant breeding experiments carried on by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture with crop plants with promise for 

 use in northern areas, and similar work at the University of 

 Alaska, indicate a healthy trend toward the utilization of proven 

 techniques and new methods. No doubt the workers interested 

 in this type of program will push the plant breeding work and 

 new strains well adapted to Alaskan conditions will result. 



Physiological work on plants in Alaska seems as yet to be in 

 its infancy. There are indications that activity in this phase 

 of botany may soon increase, both through investigations carried 

 on in Alaska, and by those done elsewhere but utilizing Alaskan 

 materials. Numerous problems involving growth under con- 



