VOL. Iv. | Notes and News. ) 197 
fauna, where it blends to some extent with that of Alta Cali- 
fornia. 
A new illustrated monthly journal, devoted to the nests and 
eggs of birds, is soon to appear under the editorship of Mr. H. 
R. Taylor, of Alameda, who is already known to oologists 
through these columns. 
Mr. Charles A. Keeler has returned from a voyage around 
Cape Horn to New York, much improved in health from a cruise 
of over four months. — 
Mr. J. W. Blankinship has returned from a six weeks’ col- 
lecting trip in Northern California, with a large collection of 
plants, many of them rare in herbaria. Among them may be 
mentioned De/phinium uliginosum, Astragalus Rattani, Howellia 
limosa, Phacelia Rattant, Mimulus nudatus, Eriogonum tripodum 
Brodiwa stellaris, Brodie@a rosea, Fritillaria pluriflora, Damason- 
Zum Californicum. 
The Herbarium of the California Academy of Sciences, by far 
the most important west of the Mississippi, is rapidly increasing 
in size. During the present year it has already been aug- 
mented by about 20,000 sheets. Besides the continual additions 
made by its curators in California, it has lately received by the 
generous kindness of the Gray Herbarium, the private collection 
of Dr. George Thurber; from Professor C. S. Sargent, of the Arnold 
Arboretum, a complete and carefully classified set of the trees 
and shrubs of that fine botanic garden. From Miss Eastwood it 
has received the plants collected by her during the whole of the 
*last summer in Colorado and Utah; from W. H. Shockley, all the 
duplicates of his herbarium; from T. S. Brandegee, all the dupli- 
cates of his collections in California and Baja California; and 
from corresponding botanists, smaller collections too numerous 
for mention. ‘These, in addition to the usual purchases, make — 
a very large total for the first half of the current year. The per- 
manent mounting of the plants on sheets of white paper is in 
steady progress. The mounting paper of the herbarium is of 
somewhat different dimensions frém the ordinary standard in 
America, the sheets being 11x17 inches. 
