MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND NEWS. 129 
flora or report has been published in the last thirty years 
for which Eaton has not elaborated the Ferns and their 
allies. He wrote that part of the Botany of California treat- 
ing of the “Vascular Acrogens.” In 1869 he was with 
Clarence King’s expedition in the Great Basin and contrib- 
uted the Composite for the “Botany of the Fortieth Par- 
allel.” 
James Dwicut Dana, the geologist and mineralogist and 
author of the “System of Mineralogy’ and “ Manual of 
Geology,” of many editions, died in April at New Haven. He 
took a lively interest in botany in his student days and while 
attached to the Wilkes expedition made the overland journey 
from Oregon to California in 1841. While with this party 
he aided in gathering botanical specimens. The “ California 
Collection,” although a small one, was one of the first ever 
made in the interior of California. Professor Dana has been 
for fifty years one of the editors of the American Jonrnal of 
Science. 
Tue “ Russian Thistle” of fame has at last been reported 
from several points in California. The production of litera- 
ture concerning the pest will doubtless receive a new impulse. 
Tue next meeting of the American Microscopical Society 
will be held at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, 
August 21, 22 and 23, 1895. Many opticans have expressed 
a desire to be present and make an exhibition of their micro- 
scopes and microscopical apparatus, thereby affording the 
members an opportunity to see all the new and standard 
apparatus. The subject of the exact standards of length, 
vital to every user of the microscope, will receive considera- 
tion. The University possesses one of Roger’s dividing 
engines and the Department of Physics will show the mem- 
bers exactly how micrometers are made. The Department 
also has a large comparator for testing micrometers. This is 
the original one used in determining the exactness of the 
