240 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. VoL.XXVm. No. 712 



times included widely different species in a 

 single one; as a matter of fact, the lines of 

 demarkatiou between species have usually 

 been niattexs of opinion and judgment, and 

 we have had and presumably always shall 

 have, autliors who will take broad or narrow 

 views. This being the case, the necessity 

 of determining in some way the absolute types 

 of species is becoming more and more ap- 

 parent, and such a work as the one now 

 reviewed is a valuable contribution to taxo- 

 nomie literature. 



The type specimens of some species could 

 not be foimd by Mr. Hitchcock, and pre- 

 sumably some of these have been lost; in 

 such instances he has been obliged to base 

 his conclusions upon the original descrip- 

 tions; three of the species described by 

 Swartz are tliose apparently preserved without 

 types. If, in such cases we could be sure 

 tliat the types do not exist, it seems to the 

 writer that it would be advantageous to desig- 

 nate some other specimen as an artificial 

 type, taking all possible care to select such a 

 specimen from the characters assigned in the 

 original description, and from as near the 

 type locality as possible. 



A list of new names and those replacing 

 names in current use is appended. 



N. L. Brtttox 



DR. JOHN B. TRA.sk, S PIOXEER OF 

 SCIENCE ON THE WEST COAST 



De. John Bo-^edman Tkask, who came to 

 California in 1S50, was bom in Koxbury, 

 Mass., in 1S24. He died in San Francisco, 

 July 3, 1879. His death was a public loss 

 and was so regarded by all who were familiar 

 with his career and varied services to the 

 commonwealth and the community in which 

 he lived. 



Following the close of his connection with 

 the United States and Mexican Boundary 

 Survey, he became the first state geologist of 

 California and was one of the illustrious 

 eight who founded the California Academy 

 of Sciences. 



Two years and more have passed since the 

 fine building, the home of the academy, the 



gift of James Lick, was destroyed by fire and 

 earthquake. In considering that memorable 

 event with its various tragic incidents and 

 the loss of the library and collections, there 

 arise from the ruins remembrances of other 

 and earlier days, recollections of that little 

 coterie of eight men who came together on the 

 sixteentli of May, 1S53, and organized the 

 first society of natural history west of the 

 Mississippi River — an event in its way equally 

 noteworthy, though lacking the spectacular 

 elements of the April disaster. 



Soon after my arrival in California in 

 June, 1S5S, I became acquainted with most of 

 these pioneers in science, and with some of 

 the earlier recruits who joined the little squad 

 of charter members. Of these latter and 

 their associates' it may be said, without in- 

 justice to any, that Dr. Trask. by virtue of 

 his genial qualities, untiring energy and all- 

 ajovmd ability, was the leader, closely fol- 

 lowed by Dr. Albert Kellogg, of precious 

 memory, who in the new environment of his 

 adopted state reveled amid the multifold 

 glories of field and forest and lived, as it 

 were, in a botanical paradise.' 



That these men and their fellows were re- 

 garded in those strenuous hurly-burly days 

 of the " gold fever," as akin to cranks, potter- 

 ing with, their shells, and bugs, and posies, 

 was not an unnatural thought to the average 

 man, hustling for the " almighty dollar " or 

 rather for the "golden nugget." However 



^ Dr. William P. Gibbons, one of the founders, 

 described several species of fishes. Among the 

 very earliest members were Dr. H. H. Behr, ento- 

 mologist and writer on the Lepidoptera, etc.; 

 Dr. W. O. Aj-res, ichthyologist; Hiram G. Bloom- 

 er, botanist, and Col. Leander Ransom and Dr. 

 Arthur B. Stout. 



' Whoever has read Dr. Kellogg's " Forest Trees 

 of California," published in the Second Annual 

 Report of the State Mineralogist of California, 

 lSSO-2, will readily admit the propriety of these 

 words. The plants described by him number 

 over 300. A complete list carefully sought from 

 all sources was published by the Academy in 

 1SS5 in the form of a Bulletin. Dr. Kellogg died 

 on the 31st of March, 1S87, and was buried in 

 Mountain View cemeterv near Oakland. 



