228 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 



stricting the range of increasing linowl- 

 edge. While patiently tolerant with these 

 extremes of opinion, it is obviously inad- 

 missible to adopt either of them here. We 

 may neither pretend to exposition of 

 knowledge not acquired nor deprecate the 

 excess of knowledge possessed by experts 

 in this or that field of science. It is hoped, 

 therefore, that the brief summaries given 

 in the president's reports may not be mis- 

 taken for adequate accounts of current 

 progress or for sufficient recpgnition of the 

 merits of the researches referred to. 



DEPARTMENTS OF RESEARCH 



In accordance with the views just set 

 forth it seems appropriate at this time to 

 limit still more narrowly than hitherto 

 the brief summaries of departmental work 

 and to invite attention still more directly 

 to the departmental reports published in 

 the year book. All of the departments of 

 research of the institution hitherto reported 

 upon are now well-defined organizations, 

 each of them independent of and more or 

 less isolated from the others, and each of 

 them devoted to a field which, while in 

 some cases related to, does not encroach 

 upon the fields of others. Bach of them 

 possesses thus a degree of autonomy which 

 calls for a corresponding degree of freedom 

 in the rendition of annual reports and ac- 

 counts of progress. But along with this 

 autonomy, indispensable to the highest 

 efSciency in such organizations, it is equally 

 essential that there should coexist a fra- 

 ternity of interest and a solidarity of pur- 

 pose centering in the institution as a whole. 

 First steps toward development of these 

 latter desiderata were taken in December, 

 1909, on the occasion of the annvial meet- 

 ing of the board of trustees, when the ad- 

 ministration building was dedicated and 

 when the directors of depa,rtments of i-e- 

 search were invited to give exhibits of the 

 salient features of their work up to that 



time. On the same occasion two related 

 experiments were inaugurated, namely, 

 that of a lecture to the trustees and their 

 guests from the head of a department of 

 research, and that of a conference between 

 the directors of departments and the presi- 

 dent. The results of these experiments 

 have been so favorable that the plan of 

 having an annual lecture, an annual con- 

 ference, and exhibits of departmental 

 work at intervals of three to five years, has 

 come to be adopted by common consent. 

 In addition to the exhibit held in Decem- 

 ber, 1909, another was held in December, 

 1911, on the occasion of the tenth anni- 

 versary of the foundation of the institution. 

 By reason of the decision of the board 

 of trustees a year ago to take part in the 

 Panama-Pacific Exposition, to begin in 

 San Francisco in February, 1915, it is pro- 

 posed to hold the next departmental exhibit 

 in the administration building at the time 

 of the meeting of the board of trustees in 

 December, 1914. It will thus be practica- 

 ble to bring together an aggregate from 

 which (by aid of counsel from depart- 

 mental representatives) a more restricted 

 exhibit may be drawn for the Panama- 

 Pacific Exposition. On account of this 

 circumstance and on account of the fact 

 that the departments on the average, as 

 well as the present administration, will 

 have completed a first decade in the insti- 

 tution's history a year hence, it seems 

 desirable to reserve any more elaborate 

 summaries of work accomplished and now 

 under way, whether of departments or of 

 research associates, until that time. Ac- 

 cordingly this section of the present report 

 is limited to something less than the usual 

 extent. 



DEPARTMENT OF BOTANICAL RESEARCH 



Studies of the Salton Sea,- carried on 



- Often by earlier writers called Cahuilla Basin, 

 more frequently called Salton Sink, and now 



