JOURNAL 



OF THE 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Vol. io • October 19, 1920 No. 17 



BOTANY. — The ejject of salts of boron upon the distribution of 

 desert vegetation,^ Karl F. Kellerman, Bureau of Plant 

 Industry. 



The disastrous experiences of the past two seasons in the use 

 of fertilizers contaminated with varying percentages of borax^ 

 has sharply drawn attention to the importance of considering 

 boron compounds not only in fertilizer investigations but in in- 

 vestigations of alkali deposits wherever agricultural develop- 

 ments are to be considered. While geologists are familiar with 

 commercial developments of borax, it has not been generally 

 appreciated by botanists or others interested in the vegetation 

 of the desert regions that extensive deposits of borax are recorded 

 in many localities in the western United States. 



It is true that, in reports of early explorations of the West 



and Southwest, reference is made to the occurrence of borax and 



also to the barrenness of some of these regions. For example, 



the following quotation is made from the article^ entitled "Borax 



in America" by W. O. Ayers, M. D.: 



"A glance at the map of the State of Nevada shows a large number 

 of dotted spots, individually of no great extent, scattered over the 

 desert regions east of the Sierra Nevada. Most of them are without 

 designation, but a few are marked 'Soda Flat,' 'Salt Marsh,' etc. 

 They all have probably a common origin; they are places which long 

 ago (how long we cannot tell) were covered with water, since removed 

 by solar evaporation. Each consists of an extent of entirely flat sur- 



' Address of the Retiring President (19 19), of the Botanical Society of Wash- 

 ington, February 3, 1920. Received Aug. 24, 1920. 



2 ScHREiNER, Brown, Skinner, and Shapovalov. Crop Injury by Borax in 

 Fertilizers. U. S. Dept of Agric. Circular 84. 



3 Popular Science Monthly 21: 358. 1882. 



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