DEPARTMENT OF EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION. 83 



Harris has been for several years connected with the Missouri Botanical 

 Gardens and the Shaw School of Botany, Washington University, St. Louis. 

 He has published numerous papers, largely dealing with plant teratology and 

 popular presentations of current evolutionary theory. It is believed that his 

 precise knowledge of plant anatomy and teratology will be of valuable assist- 

 ance in the experimental work of the Station. 



During the month of October, 1907, Miss Lutz was spared from her work 

 at the Station to assist Dr. C. S. Gager, at the New York Botanical Garden, 

 in some cytological investigations on material with which he is working at 

 the Station. This purely temporary arrangement has been made at the sug- 

 gestion of the staff of the Garden to accommodate them and to add to Miss 

 Lutz's experience. 



CONSTRUCTION. 



During the year three greenhouses, each 6 by 9 meters, connected with a 

 frame laboratory 6 by 18 meters, have been completed. These were required 

 for the plants used as food by insects or for plant pests devoured by insects 

 (lady-birds, Coccinellidas) whose strains are being maintained. One of the 

 houses is used, during the winter, for the cultivation of lettuce and grasses 

 required as food by the canaries and young poultry. An enlarged heating 

 outfit was installed in this "vivarium" sufficient for all contemplated expan- 

 sion of area under glass. A set of 15 hotbeds was constructed to provide 

 for the overflow from the plant-propagating house. A shed 50 by 3 meters 

 is being built around the stable to house certain of the live-stock during the 

 winter and to store fodder, brooders, agricultural implements, and wagons 

 used in hauling manure, soil, and supplies. To save the time of the poultry- 

 man the w^ater system was extended to the brooder-house and the breeding- 

 pens. To provide for investigators temporarily engaged at the Station one 

 of the large rooms at the main laboratory was divided by partitions into three 

 small rooms. The usual amount of fencing and cage-building was carried 

 on. As a guide in planning for the construction and in laying out of the 

 experimental gardens a survey was made of the main ground about the 

 laboratory amounting to 8.2 acres, and this was plotted on a scale of i to 250. 



EQUIPMENT. 



In addition to the new vivaria, facilities have been increased by the addition 

 of a few much-needed pieces of apparatus. As evolution involves fitness to 

 conditions, we have needed to measure the various conditions of habitat. 

 Two combined soil and air recording thermographs were purchased and are 

 used, one in the garden and one in other habitats. A number of evapo- 

 rimeters, of the type designed by Dr. B. E. Livingston, of the Department of 

 Botanical Research, were secured and, as reported below by Dr. Transeau, 

 were used in measuring the transpiration coefficient of parts of the experi- 

 mental garden, the adjacent salt-marsh, woods, and hilltops. The data thus 



