can say regarding the work of this Academy of Sciences, and 

 the influence it exercises in the dissemination of scientific 

 information throughout this community. 



Our Board of Directors has entered into a contract with 

 Los Angeles County whereby one wing of the great Historical 

 Museum and Art Gallery, now in process of construction in 

 Agricultural Park, will hi' placed under our control, and in 

 this building will he deposited these invaluable fossils, our 

 constantly increasing Library of over two thousand volumes, 

 and our collections in Botany, Geology, Tchtheology. Conchol- 

 ogy. Ethnology and Zoology, which will he freely placed 

 before the public for examination and study. 



Last summer while taking his vacation in the San Bernar- 

 dino Mountains, Dr. Anstruther Davidson discovered a new 

 species of the Mariposa Lily, one of the most beautiful of the 

 wild flowers of California. The name Mariposa was given to 

 this flower by the early Spanish settlers, w r ho saw its resem- 

 hlanee to the wings of the butterfly in the exquisite arrange- 

 ment of its variegated colors. It is found on the foothills and 

 in the canons of the mountains during the Spring, before the 

 moisture has disappeared from the ground. Dr. Davidson has 

 named his new Botanical find Calochortus paludicola, and a 

 technical description of it is given herein. 



Professor George E. Hale. Director of the Mount Wilson 

 Solar Observatory, announces that the details of Mars are 

 perfectly natural, with no evidence of artificial structure. 



En 1877. Schiaparelli first saw the markings upon Mars, 

 which he called Canali, and during the opposition of 1879 he 

 announced not only the discovery of additional canali, hut the 

 strange condition of their gemination. Unfortunately, the 

 term canali was translated into English as canals, when it 

 should have been channels, rifts, gorges, or canons, for. in 

 1893. In 1 stated that "it is not necessary to suppose here the 

 work of intelligent beings, ami in spite of the almost geometric 

 appearance of their whole system, for the present we incline 

 to believe that they are the product of evolution of a planet." 



From continued observation during the next four years, 

 his opinions concerning these canali changed, and in his 

 memoir of ls!)7. published by the Reale Academia del Lincei, 

 he says: "This whole arrangement presents an indescribable 

 simplicity and symmetry which cannot possibly he the work 

 of chance." 



