22 



preliminary experimentation, but the severe weather and 

 the difficulty of controlling the temperature in the green 

 house during the winter have been a cionstant hindrance. 



The routine correspondence of the Department contains 

 a considerable number of botanical inquiries of a general 

 nature. These frequently require a great deal of time and 

 study for satisfactory reply. The chief material factor in 

 this phase of our work is the Herbarium, and for this 

 reason it is important that it should be put into snape for 

 use. The Herbarium must not be thought of as extraneous 

 to the work of the Station, as it includes, aside from 

 general material, the working collection of plant parasites. 

 Our greatest need at the moment is proper housing in the 

 form of tightly constructed cases, since without these we 

 cannot control the insect j)ests which are peculiarly bother- 

 some here. 



A paper embodying in brief form my studies of the desert 

 rubber plant above mentioned was presented before the 

 Botanical Society of America, at the recent meeting in 

 Boston, ifhder the title. ''The Res])onse of the Guayule, 

 Parthenium Argentatum Gray to Irrigation." An article, 

 "The Guayula Rubber Situation," was contributed, by re- 

 quest of the editor of the India Rubber World, to the 

 twentieth anniversary number of that periodical. 



Yours truly, 



Francis E. Lloyd, 



Botanist. 



