144 The Department of Plant Physiology [342 



The investigation carried on here has itself been largely 

 preparatory for future work; the problems that we have de- 

 sired to attack could not be undertaken until the field (which 

 is a new one) had been specially prepared, so that our con- 

 tributions to the science are to be regarded largely as begin- 

 nings and preparations. It appears likely that many of these 

 lines of work will be carried out elsewhere, either by students 

 of this university or by others who become interested as the 

 field is opened. The general nature of our problems will be 

 touched upon in the following section. 



One other feature of the educational and preparatory work 

 carried on by this department deserves mention, a feature 

 that may be fully as important as is the direct training of 

 students. This laboratory has furnished information and ad- 

 vice to many persons not directly connected with it regard- 

 ing problems bearing on the water relations of plants, and 

 has thus been able to render more or less valuable aid to stu- 

 dents in other institutions and investigators in experiment 

 stations, etc. To a lesser degree we have been called upon to 

 aid outside investigators in other fields of plant physiology. 

 It has been the practice of the department to furnish ideas 

 and suggestions quite freely to all inquirers, a practice in- 

 volving the writing of explicit and detailed letters, but one 

 which seems to be fully as legitimate and valuable as are the 

 consultations with our own students in residence. It is in- 

 tended that no such inquiries from outside the depart- 

 ment shall be subject to neglect or perfunctory reply; such 

 information and suggestions as we have are furnished 

 promptly and freely to all who ask. This makes the hand- 

 ling of the correspondence of the department a somewhat 

 serious undertaking, but one that is fully worthy of the time 

 and energy so expended. The number of persons, in many 

 regions of the world, who are thus more or less indirectly 

 connected with this laboratory, is much larger than the 

 number of workers who have actually been in residence here. 

 Also, the director of this laboratory devotes considerable time 



