SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 79 



posits, Topography, Scenery, Climate and Water Supplies." The 

 speaker gave an intensely interesting description of the desert, de- 

 scribing it as a great storehouse of mineral wealth which in time would 

 be developed and utilized. He stated that the preat valley between the 

 Sierra Ncvadas on the west and the Wasatch range of mountains on the 

 east, was once a great lake, and that the large deposits of nitrates, soda 

 and borax found on the Mojave desert owed their existence to a similar 

 process of long continued evaporation. The lecturer claiined that this 

 barren waste was a storehouse of wealth preserved by nature for what 

 the adjacent country most needed. He estimated that in the past year 

 through the shipment of oranges from Southern California there was taken 

 from the soil 5,000 tons of nitrogen which could be replaced from the 

 nitrates of the desert. The lecture was full of incidents and sugges- 

 tions. 



A vivid description was given of the oppressive lonliness and death- 

 like stillness of the desert, and it was stated that sometimes men in cross- 

 ing Death Valley lost their reason when too much alone. 



The lecturer congratulated the Academy upon the good work ac- 

 complished, which he asserted deserved the hearty suooort of the citizens 

 of Los Angeles. 



Upon motion. Prof. Bailey was tendered the thanks of the audience 

 by a rising vote for his interesting lecture. 



Mr. W. H. Knight gave notice of a meeting to be held at tne Throop 

 Institute on June 2nd at which time a bust of the late Prof. E. W. Clay- 

 pole would be presented to that institution. 



Adjourned. G. Major Taber, 



Secretary. 



BOTANICAL SECTION. 



The regular meeting was devoted to the examination of a collection 

 of Carices from the herbarium of Dr. Kraemer. The secretary reports 

 the completion of the numbering and cataloguing of the botanical col- 

 lection. Reports of the field meetings were made; the following places 

 having been visited during.' the month of May: Glendora, Azusa, San 

 Antonio and "Old Baldy jnountain, Rivera, Studebaker, Nigger's Slough, 

 Redondo. Santa Monica Canyon, and Laurel Canyon. As the result of 

 these explorations quite a few new records have been made for Los An- 

 geles County and Southern California, full details of which will be pub- 

 lished in future numbers of the Bullitin. 



L. A. Greata, Secretary. 



BOARD OF DIRECTORS. 



Los Angeles, May 17, 1902. 



The first meeting of the newly elected Board of Directors was held this 

 afternoon at room 2, Bryson Block, Los Angeles. 



The Directors present were : Knight, Davidson, Comstock, Whiting, 

 Taber, Parsons, Baumgardt. 



The Secretary announced that the purpose for which the Board had 

 convened was the election of Officers. 



The Board elected officers as follows : 



President Dr. T. B. Comstock 



First Vice-President J. D. Hooker 



Second Vice-President Prof. Melville Dozier 



Treasurer Dr. Anstruther Davidson 



Secretary B. R. Baumgardt 



Adjourned. B. R. Baumgardt, Secretary. 



