/oS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



of collapse the whole series of elements; most likely, one substance 

 will give us one series, and another substance will give another." 



The flashes of energy produced by an induction coil seemed, for- 

 merly, to be dissipated in space. Were they lost ? We now know that 

 those impulses are borne in waves that can be received and recorded at 

 a distant station; that wireless telegraphy is simply electro-magnetic 

 radiation into the ether from a metal conductor; that these Hertzian 

 waves can be refracted and reflected as light can be. 



But yet, are we quite sure that we know all thisf Are these im- 

 pulses waves, vibrations, oscillations of the ether? Or are they, in 

 the new light that is dawning upon us, are they the material projections 

 of fractured atoms' I must confess that my mind halts on the border 

 line of a tantalizing and perplexing dilemma. 



How shall we account for these apparent caprices in the behavior 

 of elementary substances when thus brought into contact in different 

 proportions? We cannot account for it at present. All the light that 

 has come to us in recent discoveries and experiments has enabled us 

 to penetrate the mystery only a very little way. We are, from tim^ 

 to time, adding a little to our knowledge of the processes of nature, 

 but the why, the why, of those processes is a riddle as insolvable as ever. 



RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 



New or Notewortliy North American Crassulaceae. X. L. Britton and 

 J. X. Eose. Bull. X. Y. Bot. Gard. 3:1-45. Sept., 1903. 



Platystemon and Its Allies. Edward L. Greene. Pittonia, 5:139-149. 

 Aug., 1903. 



We have here two papers of especial interest to California botanists. 

 In the first a great number of new species are described under fifteen 

 genera. Seven of these pertaiu whoUj', or in part to the Pacific Coast; 

 and but one of them, Sedum, is a familiar name. Tillaea angustifolia, 

 Xutt., becomes Tillaestrum angustifolium, Britt. The flat leaved Coty- 

 ledons are referred to a new genus. Dudleya, of 59 species, extending from 

 Crescent City to Cape San Lucas. Twenty-nine species represent the 

 development of this genus in Southern California. For the species with 

 terete leaves or semi-terete leaves the genus Stylophyllum is provided, 

 and the four already known species are augmented to twelve. Sedum 

 variegatum, Wats., becomes the type of Hasseanthus, a genus named in 

 honor of Dr. H. E. Hasse, all of whose four species are of Southern Cali- 

 fornia. 



The practical usefulness of the paper is lessened by the absence 

 of keys, or a synoptical arrangement of the species. In Dudleya, where 

 most of the new species are segregates of the old ones, it is to be regretted 

 that the authors did not redefine the latter; since after so many sub- 

 tractions the original descriptions can hardly apply. And when to this 

 is added the assignment of only the vaguest ranges to these species, and 

 the absence of any citation of specimens, one is at a loss to understand 



