396 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [NOVEMBER 
or successors of these former builders, may be found varieties of 
corn, beans, pumpkins, and squashes which have survived the race 
under whose husbandry they were produced. Centuries of adapta- 
tion have therefore produced types eminently suited to withstand 
the extremes of heat and drought to which the climate and indiffer- 
ent agriculture of a primitive people often exposed them. 
The investigations of which this paper forms a report are con- 
cerned with the varieties of native beans only. The need for a 
leguminous food plant to restore nitrogen to soils irrigated with 
pumped water, and the necessity of finding drought-resistant 
crops suitable for use where “dry-farming” is being attempted, 
has directed the attention of the Arizona Experiment Station to 
these beans for several years. Tests at Yuma under irrigation, 
and at McNeal under dry farm conditions, have already demon- 
strated the ability of these native beans to fulfil all of the require- 
ments of drought-resistance and fertilizing value, and in addition 
they have the ability to produce profitable crops of a staple product. 
During these agricultural tests, made for the most part from 
seeds secured originally from the Indians, it was noticed that many 
apparently different sorts occurred. In order to study the differ- 
ent varieties in their native condition, therefore, and to secure 
samples for testing their relative values, the writer in company 
with Director Forses spent two weeks during late July and early 
August 1910 among the Papago Indians in their villages situated 
in the valley between the Baboquivari and Quijotoa mountains, 
some 50-100 miles southwest of Tucson. Here, in a region with 
9 inches of rainfall annually, these beans were being grown success- 
fully with no irrigation save that of a little flood water which came 
down the mountain washes. 
During the course of this trip 32 samples of beans were secured. 
In addition to these, 10 samples had been previously secured by 
Mr. Cavitto from the Papago Indians near Santa Rosa and grown 
one year at Yuma; 7 samples were furnished by Professor se 
THORNBER from beans secured from the Pimas at Sacaton; some 
25 carefully selected samples were contributed by Mr. MENAGER, 
of the Indian Oasis, which he picked from beans secured from the 
Papagos, and finally, as a result of a three days’ trip among the 

