2 DESERT BOTANICAL LABORATORY 



enable a small number of trained investigators, should they so desire, 

 to utilize the opportunity for studying those questions for whose solu- 

 tion the Laboratory and its environment are especially favorable. Not 

 the least important part of the duties of the resident investigator wrill be 

 to aid visiting botanists and others. 



The Laboratory Location Trip. 



Each member of the Advisory Board had visited, during the pre- 

 ceding twelve years, most of the more marked desert areas of the 

 country. Nevertheless, it was deemed profitable to make, together, a 

 systematic tour of these deserts in order to gain a better comparative 

 knowledge of the aspects of their vegetation, and to select a locality 

 offering the greatest advantages and facilities for the proposed work. 

 Accordingly, between January 24 and February 28, 1903, they made 

 a reconnaissance of the region along the Mexican boundary. As the 

 outcome a site was selected on a small mountain near Tucson, Arizona, 

 and the erection of a laboratory building, according to plans approved 

 by them, was begun. The organization of the Laboratory was carried 

 a step further by the appointment of Dr. W. A. Cannon as resident 

 investigator. He at once undertook the preparation of the bibliography 

 of desert plants, which is printed in this report, pages 46 to 58. 



As no publication exists, suitable to the needs of the botanist who 

 visits our western deserts, it has seemed desirable to present a brief 

 narrative of the trip, accompanied by illustrations of landscapes show- 

 ing characteristic vegetation. The observations were necessarily in- 

 terrupted by night travel, and as the time at command was short, only 

 a mere skeleton of the desert flora can be presented. If, however, 

 this shall serve to convey an idea of the diversity of the several lesser 

 floras of which the whole is made up, and of the wealth of material 

 afforded for detailed geographical and physiological study, the chief 

 purpose of this portion of the report will have been accomplished. 



itinerary. 



The two members of the Board having met at Washington left that 

 city January 24, 1903, and arrived at El Paso, Texas, on the morning 

 of January 28. During the day they visited the sand dunes in the 

 Chihuahua desert between Samalayuca and Los Medanos, Mexico, 

 and in the evening took the train for Alamogordo, New Mexico. 

 From January 29 to January 31 they were engaged in a wagon trip to 

 the White Sands of the Tularosa desert, southwest of Alamogordo. 

 On February i they returned to El Paso and proceeded by rail to 



