128 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



received with great favor every where, and has redounded 

 greatly to the credit of the United States, first in authorizing 

 the research, and then in publishing the results in so superior 

 a style. 



We now have to chronicle the appearance of another vol- 

 ume of the series, namely, the Botany, as prepared under the 

 direction of Mr. Sereno Watson, the botanist of the expedi- 

 tion. This constitutes volume five of Mr. King's reports, and 

 number eighteen of the professional papers of the Engineer 

 Department of the army. The work embraces a report upon 

 the geography, meteorology, and physics of the region ex- 

 plored as connected with the general botany of the country, 

 catalogues of the known plants investigated, descriptions of 

 new genera and species, and various appendices these ac- 

 companied by forty plates of new or rare species. 



Another volume of the series is now in press, and will 

 include the zoological portion, as furnished by Mr. Robert 

 Kidgway. This will probably appear in the course of a few 

 months. 



It is not many years since the works published by the na- 

 tional printing-office in Washington were a by-word and re- 

 proach on account of the carelessness of their execution and 

 general inferiority to those of private establishments; and 

 efforts were continually made, on the part of those who val- 

 ued the dress in which their reports were to appear, to obtain 

 the privilege of having their printing done under other aus- 

 pices. With such examples, however, as this report of Mr. 

 King, and others which have lately made their appearance, 

 we may safely claim for our government establishment the 

 ability to produce scientific works in a style, as regards press- 

 work, paper, engraving, and binding, scarcely to be equaled, 

 and not to be excelled. 



PEOGEESS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF CALIFOENIA. 



The statement by Professor J. D.Whitney, of the present 

 condition of the geological survey of California, lately pre- 

 sented to the governor of the state, gives a gratifying pict- 

 ure of the activity and success in accomplishing the objects 

 for which the exploration was authorized. The state geolo- 

 gist remarks that less has been done than he had hoped, in 

 consequence of the suspension of the appropriations by a pre- 



