DESERT BOTANICAL LABORATORY 



HISTORICAL. 



The current conceptions of deserts are neither adequate nor correct 

 if the descriptions in the best dictionaries and cyclopedias are to be 



Fig. 2. Western America showing conceptions of American deserts current in 

 1835. Copied from T. G. Bradford's Comprehensive Atlas, published at Boston 

 in 1835. 



taken as an index. A work of wide circulation and use defines a 

 desert as " A region that is wholly or approximately without vegetation. 



