Maech 27, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



487 



Mexico is poor in species, not more tliau 12 or 

 14 being credited to our territory. Four of 

 these are of the Atlantic slope of the continent, 

 the rest belonging exclusively to the Pacific 

 slope. That narrow strip of territory interven- 

 ing between the crest of the Sierra Nevada and 

 the Pacific has more than twice the number of 

 Rhamnus species exhibited by all the vast area 

 of the United States besides. Each one of the 

 far-western species occupies an altitudinal belt 

 of its own, never trespassing upon the terri- 

 tory of another species; R. Californica, for ex- 

 ample, inhabiting the Coast Range hills, from 

 near the level of the sea up to an elevation of 

 several hundred feet. In the dry interior re- 

 gion lying between the two mountain chains, 



B. tomentella holds the field as exclusively, this 

 at altitudes varying from 300 to 3000 feet. 

 Then, after passing the region of, this shrub of 

 the dry interior, and reaching an altitude of 

 about 5,000 feet, where there is deep annual 

 snowfall, there occurs a narrow belt of an ex- 

 ceedingly distinct species, R. rubra ; this shrub 

 being deciduous, while both its allies of the 

 lower altitudes are evergreen. 



Ceanothus, the genus of shrubs, most nearly 

 allied to Rhamnus, instead of being like that, 

 almost cosmopolitan, is confined to North 

 America ; where only 4 out of the whole num- 

 ber of more than 60 sorts are of the Atlantic 

 slope ; some 6 belong to Mexico and Arizona ; 

 all the remaining 50 occurring within the limits 

 of the State of California ; no fewer than 40 of 

 them being strictly limited to that State, where 

 the Coast Range seems to be the special home 

 of the genus. 



The two eastern species, C. Americanvs and 



C. ovatus, which are the type of the genus, have 

 but one near ally, and that is the far-western 

 C sanguineus. The two Floridan species, C. 

 microphyllus and C. serpyllifolius are in affinity 

 far removed from the other Atlantic species, 

 and are separated from their only near relatives, 

 certain species of the Californian Coast Range, 

 by a distance of more than 2,000 miles. Again, 

 one species peculiar to islands near the Cali- 

 fornia coast is related to none of the species of 

 the closely adjacent mainland, but has its near 

 kindred more than 1,000 miles southward, in 

 central Mexico. 



Frederick V. Coville spoke of Different Edi- 

 tions of Some Government Expedition Reports, stat- 

 ing that several editions of the reports of the 

 expeditions of Emory, Stansbury and Fremont 

 ha(i been published, and that not only were 

 there diflTerences in the pagination, but, in some 

 instances, changes in the text, these altera- 

 tions in some cases aflfecting the specific and 

 even generic names of plants. Anyone quoting 

 from these reports, the speaker said, should be 

 careful to [state exactly which edition was re- 

 ferred to. 



F. A. Lucas, 



Secretary. 



THE woman's anthropological SOCIETY. 



The 140th meeting of the Society was held 

 February 29th, the day being devoted to Arch- 

 eology. Miss Sarah A. Scull gave a talk on 

 the growth of Art in Egypt, Chaldea, Assyria 

 and Greece, and comparisons were drawn be- 

 tween Semitic and Aryan arts. All sections 

 of the Society, in their studies, are looking es- 

 pecially towards this point — differences in the 

 two families, Semitic and Aryan — and many 

 interesting comparisons have been drawn in the 

 section meetings as well as in those meetings 

 that have been open to the public. Miss Scull's 

 remarks were illustrated by stereopticon views, 

 many of which were from photographs taken 

 by herself. 



The meeting of March 14th was in charge of 

 the section for Child-Life study. Mrs. Eudora 

 Lucas Hailmann, who has devoted her life to 

 study of the child in the Kindergarten, pre- 

 sented her views on the use of symbols in early 

 education. In the treatment of the subject, 

 the address had reference entirely to children 

 of the age from three to seven inclusive. Nor- 

 mal, vigorous children of these ages do not 

 speculate, do not dream day dreams, do not 

 see sprites in the flowers, nor ogres in the 

 forest, unless they have been put there by older 

 heads. Their eager, active, healthy minds and 

 bodies are too much absorbed in the immediate 

 interesting beautiful wonders that surround 

 them. There is no need to stimulate their love 

 and admiration for life by artificial means, and 

 they have not reached the contemplative, 

 speculative age of abstract thinking. To force 



