MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND NEWS. 43 



In September, 1896, Prof. C. S. Sargent and Mr. John Muir 

 measured a felled Coast Redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, in the forests 

 near Scotia, Mendocino County, California, which was 340 feet in 

 length and 230 feet to the first limb. The trunk diameter at 6 feet 

 above the ground was extremely small — only 10 feet 5 inches. 

 These figures grant to the Coast Redwood the honor of being the 

 tallest tree on the American continent, since the tallest Sequoia 

 gigantea is but 325 feet high. 



The Gardeners^ Chronicle records the death of M. Jordan, an 

 eminent French botanist, and adds, "He was not only a closet 

 botanist, but cultivated the plants in which he was interested, and 

 to each minor variation of a constant character he applied a specific 

 name, so that he was a 'splitter' ^ja?' excellence." 



It is reported that Prof. Thos. C. Porter, who has held the chair 

 of natural history in Lafayette College for more than thirty years, 

 will retire at the end of the present collegiate year. His herbarium 

 has become the property of the college. 



Volume X of the "Silva of North America," by Charles Sprague 

 Sargent, has been recently issued. This volume contains the trees of 

 the Liliaceffi, Palmte, Taxacese, and Conifer?e through the Cupressinese 

 and Taxodinese, and is of exceptional interest to west American bot- 

 anists. The Liliacese are represented only by the Yuccas. Of the 

 eight arborescent species of Yucca, peculiar to North America, two 

 are Californian, namely, Yucca arborescens, so familiar to travelers 

 through tlie Mojave Desert, and Yucca Mohavensis. The last is 

 found higher on the hills surrounding or belonging to the Mojave 

 Desert and also in the vicinity of Monterey. It has heretofore been 

 confused with Yucca macrocarpe, a Texas species, and Yucca baccata, 

 belonging to the Colorado plateau. The plates of these Yuccas are 

 among the most beautiful of any that have yet appeared in the "Silva." 

 Only one palm, Washingtonia filamentosa, is distinctively Californian. 

 This is the largest palm in the United States, and is found native in 

 the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains, It is well known 

 in cultivation, being our most generally cultivated palm. Under 

 Taxacese are Tumion Californicum and Taxus brevifolia, the former 



