REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT, I91I. I9 



RESUME OF INVESTIGATIONS OF THE YEAR. 



The past fiscal year has been, on the whole, the most fruitful year on record 



for the ten specially organized departments of research in 



^'^'"ofResTa^rch"^"'^ ^^^^ Institution. Although some of these are not yet fully 



equipped, they are all so well organized and provided for 



that their energies may now be chiefly directed to the attainment of definite 



results. 



A development of much interest in connection with these departments is 

 that of cooperative effort coming through Research Associates and collabora- 

 tors. The departmental facilities are already in considerable demand from 

 capable investigators, and many of them are found desirous of using these 

 facilities, not only to forward their own researches, but to collaborate in the 

 researches proper of the departments. The favorable experience which has 

 accrued in recent years in these matters indicates that it may be advantage- 

 ous in the future to seek to secure an additional number of investigators 

 who, by reason of their eminence, may collaborate effectively in this manner. 



Each of these departments has now under way such a variety and com- 

 plexity of work that it is difficult to summarize. Reference must be made, 

 therefore, for matters of detail, to the reports of the directors of the depart- 

 ments, published in full in the current Year Book. Hence such allusions in 

 the following paragraphs as are made to the progress of the year are neces- 

 sarily brief and can deal only with the more salient aspects of departmental 

 affairs and researches. 



The activities of this department now necessarily cover a wide range, since 



any successful attempt to solve the problems of the origin, development, 



migration, and modification under varying climatic condi- 



Department of tions of plant life must require extensive field observa- 



DOtanical Kesearch. . ^ ^ . . . . 



tions, much laboratory expenmentation, and mcreasmg 

 application of the sciences of chemistry and physics. It is natural and proper, 

 therefore, that the staff and collaborators of the department should include 

 many specialists, and that they should approach the problems to be investi- 

 gated from many points of view. Thus it happens that the investigations of 

 the past year have embraced, among others, studies of the evaporation, the 

 increasing salinity, and the changes in vegetation following close after the 

 receding shores of the Salton Sea ; of the influences of temperature, rainfall, 

 sunlight, soil-moisture, etc., on plant organisms; of the effects following 

 transplantation from low to high altitudes and from arid to humid localities ; 

 of the variations in water and acid content of plants ; of the chemical effects 

 induced in plant tissue by light and heat ; and of the physiological functions 

 of leaves in plant life. 



One of the most interesting investigations under way during the year is 

 that of Dr. Ellsworth Huntington, Research Associate of the department, on 

 the secular variations of climate of the southwest desert area in recent geo- 



