1 82 Botanical N^omenclatiire. [zoe 



Cascade Falls where it comes leaping and rolling oflF the granite 

 boulders to the river, the ideal home of the dipper. 



The California creeper was seen on two occasions on cedar 

 trees. 



Slender-billed nuthatches were seen in white oaks once, but 

 no individuals of Sitta canadensis. 



The mountain chickadee {Panis gambeli) was seen on one 

 occasion while passing through a mass of firs at summit of 

 Glacier Point. The surrounding conditions were such that I 

 expected to find it a common bird. 



The whistling notes of a pallid wren-tit {ChavKEa fasciata 

 henshaici) were heard in a manzanita thicket half way up to 

 Glacier Point. 



A ruby-crowned wren was seen in a young fir tree near our 

 camp at Bridal Veil Fall. 



Townsend's solitaire was twice seen and a specimen taken 

 at Diamond Cascades below the Vernal Falls. 



The jewel of all the high Sierra singers is the western robin 

 {Merula mig^-atoria propinqua). It perches at the top of a pine 

 or fir and sings till the setting sun is down, breaking forth now 

 and then with a few notes till night begins. At first break of 

 morning light, about three o'clock, his song is in greatest per- 

 fection; after greeting the day he is then quiet excepting a short 

 low bar of love to his nesting mate. Full-grown young with 

 spotted plumage were about our camp all the time. 



BOTANICAL NOMENCLATURE- 



BY KATHARINK BRANDEGEE. 



It must be confessed that the present state of nomenclature 

 is hardly an encouragement to those attempting to reform it. 

 Almost every author of a systematic treatise has a system of his 

 own, differing more or less from that of his neighbor, and in too 

 many cases his meaning can only be made out by the average 

 botanist through the quoted " synonymy." This state of things 

 not only furnishes the "biological" botanist with his keenest 

 weapons against systematic work but lessens to a marked degree 



