92 SOUTHERN CALIFOR^UA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Piniis albicauUs, (flexiler) five dark green leaves, bark white; found 

 only near snow line. 



Psciido-tsuga macrocarpa. (Southern California spruce) short, flat 

 leaves springing from short stem; long pendant cone has three-pronged 

 bracts protruding between scales. 



/ibies concolor, (Balsam fir) short leaves without stems; dark bark; 

 cylinder-shaped cones stand erect on limbs, and when rTpe scales fall off. 



Lihocedrus decurrens, (Incense cedar) flat, bright green leaves; small 

 horn-shaped cone; bark light yellow to cinnamon, in long ridges. 



The acorns and leaves of four characteristic oaks were exhibited and 

 described. Mr. Kinney spoke of the importance of preserving our forests 

 from the ravages of fire, from the woodmans' axe, and from the spoilia- 

 tion of the sheep-herder, as forests conserve the rainfall and minimize the 

 disastrous effects of floods and drouths . 



Upon introducing Dr. John Uri Lloyd, President of the Eclectic Med- 

 ical Institute of Cincinnati, and author of several scientific works, Mr. 

 Knight exhibited the monster tooth of a gigantic animal recently exhumed 

 from a bed of gravel near the County Hospital in this city, and said that 

 Prof. Lloyd would take it for a text and speak of the mastodon bones 

 found near his boyhood home in the salt licks of Kentucky. Indulging 

 in a philosophical vein of thought, the professor said that Kentucky is 

 the great mid-land region of the country. Into its rich valleys came the 

 mastodons and mammoths of pre-glacial ages, the buft'aloes, elks, deer and 

 other herbivorous animals of modern times, and it became the rich hunt- 

 ing-ground, first of the North American Indian tribes, then of the white 

 races which focalized there from the east, from the north, and from the 

 west and south, to secure its abundant wild game. There are still vestiges 

 of buft'alo roads fifty feet in width, tramped by innumerable herds. While 

 the Indians roamed those primeval forests to replenish their winter stores 

 of meat, they established their homes north of the Ohio river or south of 

 the Tennessee. The size of the animals of the tertiary and quarternary 

 ages which fed in these rich valleys is almost bej^ond belief. The ribs of 

 some of them had been used for tent-poles by some of the early settlers 

 in that region. The best skeleton of a mastodon in existence, 35 feet 

 in length, was dug up there and sent to England. 



Why were the bones of these huge animals found in that region? 

 Because great springs of salt water issue from the earth, overflowing 

 the adjacent ground, and making an immense salt marsh of a depth so 

 great that it has not yet been probed to the bottom. Into this yielding 

 soil the gigantic beasts who came to lick its saline incrustations, ventured 

 too far, and sunk and were buried alive, and their monster bones are the 

 playthings of wondering children, and the curios of zoological cabinets 

 today. 



Dr. Theodore C. Comstock, the president-elect, was then introduced 

 by Mr .Knight as a gentleman of high scientific attainments, of wide ex- 

 perience in geological research, having conducted U. S. exploration parties 

 in the field, and has been a successful educator in both eastern and west- 

 ern institutions. 



Prof. Comstock took for his theme "The Mission of the Local Acad- 

 emy of Sciences." and began by giving a synopsis of the history and work 

 of the American Association, and suggested that our local body had 

 reached a numerical strength and stage of development to be permanently 

 organized on a basis for doing the best work, and for affiliating with 

 other similarly organized scientific bodies. 



An abstract of Dr. Comstock's address will appear in Bulletin No. 8. 



Mr. B. R. Baumgardt gave a spirited recitation — Mrs. Stetson's "The 

 Rock and the Sea," followed by paragraphs from Tyndalls' address before 

 the British Association at Belfast, 28 years ago. 



