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The West American Scientist. 



134 



president of the California Southern 

 Railway conpany. donated to the soci- 

 ety the first passenger ticket issued by 

 said company. 



March 10„1S82, D. Cleveland exhibited 

 a specimen of OphlOEr'osum, recently 

 named O. Californicum — a new species 

 — which was collected at San Diego in 

 1850 by Dr. C. C. Parry, then botanist of 

 the Mexican Boundary Commission. The 

 plant was lost, with others, in trans- 

 mission to the east, and not seen again 

 until it was rediscovered here, a few 

 days before by Dr. Parry and Mr. 

 Cleveland. Nov. 2, 1883, Mrs. Z. Cronyn 

 reported that some tubers of the com- 

 mon potato (Solanum tuberosum) which 

 had been collected by J. G. Lemmon, 

 among the indigenous plants of tht 

 Chirricahua mountans of Arizona, were 

 planted by her and had yielded a gooa 

 crop of tubers of increased size. This 

 is. perhaps, the first discovery of the 

 potato as indigeuous to North America, 

 It is generally regarded as a South 

 American plant, naturalized in North 

 America and Europe. 



Nov. 2, 1883, Mr. Cleveland presented 

 a written communication upon Pinus 

 Torreyana, growing in Soledad canyon. 

 A committee was appointed to take 

 measures to protect this rare tree. Au- 

 gust 7, 18S3, Joseph Surr reported that, 

 at the request of this committee, the 

 county board of supervisors, and the 

 board of city trustees had each passed 

 ordinances offering a reward of $100 foi 

 the arrest and conviction of any person 

 who should cut, destroy, or injure any 

 cL" these trees. This action stopped the 

 cutting down and sale of said trees for 

 fire \Tood, which at one time threatened 

 the destruction of the whole grove.. 



July 24, 1899, the common council of 

 the city of San Diego, by ordinance, 

 reserved the land— about 369 acres— 

 upon which these trees are standing, as 

 a public park, designating it as "Torrey 

 Pine Park." The park contains about 

 2,700 trees, and is located about twenty 

 miles north of the city center, though 

 within the municipal limits. 



Oct. 2, 1884, on motion of John G. 

 Capron, it was resolved that the United 

 States congress be petitioned to grant 

 to this society sections 12, 13 and 14 on 



San Miguel mountain for an astronom- 

 ical observatory. The petition wa? 

 sent, prominent senators anc: represen- 

 tatives became favorably interested in 

 the project, and at one time it seemed 

 as though the grant would be made. 



In March, 1887, E. W. Morse and 

 Mary C. Morse, his wife, donated to the 

 society, lot I in block 18 of Horton's ad- 

 dition, upon which Unity hall now 

 stands, under a lease from this society. 

 The society pledged itself to erect a 

 building upon the lot for the use of the 

 society, as soon as practicable. 



Aug. 26, 1887. Henry Hemphill donated 

 a large collection of shells to the soci- 

 ety. 



In the winter of 1892-3 the chamber of 

 commerce undertook the preparation of 

 an exhibit of fishes, in alcohol — the 

 property of this society — for the Colum- 

 bian exposition at Chicago in 1893. 



Dec. 10. 1897, E. W. Morse reported the 

 successful grafting, at Alpine, in this 

 county, of the eastern chestnut upon 

 the common oak. 



Many scientific papers have been pre- 

 sented, and many interesting lectures 

 and addresses have been made to the 

 society. Some of these have been of 

 mueh more than local and transient in- 

 terest and value. At present the so- 

 ciety meets monthly at the house of 

 some member. Papers are presented 

 and addresses made upon son^e scien- 

 tific subject (often one of special local 

 interest), announced the previous 

 month. The December, 1901, meeting 

 was held at the residence of Miss Lena 

 Polhamus, and the subject discussed 

 was the marine life of San Diegan wa- 

 ters. 



The society begins the year 1902 out 

 of debt, with a respectable cash bal- 

 ance in the treasury, and owns a valu- 

 able building lot centrally located, upon 

 which, it is hoped, a building for the 

 society wi'l be erected in the near future. 

 The present officers of the society 

 are: President, Daniel Cleveland; vice- 

 president, Mrs. Harriet Phillips; secre- 

 tary. Will H. Holcomb, and treasuret-, 

 Theodore Fintzelberg. 



DANIEL CLEVELAND. 



