BOTANICAL RESEARCH — MACDOUGAI,. 1 19 



BOTANICAL RESEARCH. 



DEPARTMENT OF BOTANICAL RESEARCH, TUCSON. ARIZONA * 

 By D. T. MacDougal, Director. 



Upon the organization of the Department at the beginning of the present 

 year, attention was turned to the extension and development of the investiga- 

 tion of problems which might be attacked to greatest advantage in connection 

 with the Desert Botanical Laboratory at Tucson, Arizona. The Desert Labo- 

 ratory was established in 1903, and in the period of two years during which 

 its facilities were actually available its effectiveness was amply demonstrated 

 by the results secured by the resident investigator and visiting naturalists. 

 Additional facilities and equipment have been provided as described below, 

 and the staff has been enlarged to include workers on some of the more 

 important questions in the physiology of plant life. 



In this expansion an attempt was made to secure a correlation of effort, not 

 only among the members of the Laboratory staff, but also to include the 

 work of other scientists receiving subsidies from the Institution. Beyond 

 this it was taken as a matter of course that the researches taken up should 

 not duplicate the activities of other institutions any farther than might be 

 necessary and justifiable by the peculiar local conditions offered by the region 

 in which the Laboratory is located. 



As a natural outcome of the principles noted above, questions arise which 

 require the more or less combined and organized effort of the entire Labora- 

 torv extending over a term of years, with participation on the part of the 

 entire staff at various times. Work of this character demands the utmost 

 exactness in making records of observations and experimental results, as well 

 as definiteness of methods, in order to be of a value commensurate with the 

 effort expended. 



THE VEGETATION OF THE SALTON BASIN. 

 It seems to be fairly apparent that the greater portion of the more pro- 

 nounced arid areas in North America has been in submersion during 

 comparatively recent geological periods, and consequently that the highly 

 specialized flora which now inhabits such regions is of fairly recent origin. 

 In seeking to interpret the striking adaptations which are so profusely exem- 

 plified in the desert flora and in securing evidence upon problems of the 

 physiology of plant life, it would appear that anything that would give sug- 

 gestions as to the movements and behavior of such plants in the occupation 

 of new areas might be of great value. The Salton Basin in southern 

 California offers opportunities of this character. 



* Report for the year ending September 30, 1906. Grant No. 309. $33,000 for investi- 

 gations and maintenance. (For previous reports see Year Book No. 2, p. xxvi, Year 

 Book No. 3, pp. 98-100, Year Book No. 4, pp. 126-127.) 



