THE WEST-AMERICAN SCIENTIST. 



31 



Granting then what is unavoid- 

 able, the liability to modification 

 of the Chorizanthoid perianth in 

 the way of reduction and partial 

 obsoletion, coupled with the re- 

 markable persistence of the invo- 

 lucral characters, and the above 

 view removes at once the anoma- 

 lous features of the species, and 

 fulfills all the desirable systematic 

 conditions* 



On the other hand, the previ- 

 ously received view involves much 

 more serious and insuperable dif- 

 ficulties, placing this otherwise 

 well characterized plant entirely 

 out of analogy with all other allied 

 Eriogonous genera in the entire ab- 

 sence of an involucre, either in 

 the usual form of a segmented 

 whorl or as a simple bracteate 

 floral appendage; assuming more- 

 over that a perianth which in all 

 other allied species has certain 

 fixed characteristics, only subject 

 to reduced modification of parts, 

 but never of structure, can take 

 the puzzling form of an ordinary 

 involucre! 



When such irreconcilable facts 

 are once fairly placed by the side 

 of a more natural and simple ex- 

 planation, the question of choice 

 cannot long remain doubtful. 



Kew, England, November, 1884. 

 — • 



The Bulletin of the California 

 Academy, of Sciences, No. 3, Feb- 

 ruary, 1885, has been received 

 and contains much of botanical 

 interest from the pens of Eev. E. 

 L. Greene, Mrs. Mary K. Curran, 

 and H. W. Harkness, the latter 

 on fungi. H. H. Behr contributes 

 to the literature on lepidoptera in 

 descriptions of new species, etc. 



CONTEMPORARY JOURNALS. 



The American Monthly Micro- 

 scopical Journal, Romyn Hitch- 

 cock, editor and publisher, Wash- 

 ington, D. C, $1 per year. With 

 this well established periodical 

 and the journal of the New York 

 Microscopical Society, the micro- 

 scopist can keep well posted on 

 the news in the various depart- 

 ments. 



Mind in Nature, a popular 

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 ical and scientific information, is 

 announced to be published the 

 first of every month, by the Cos- 

 mic Publishing Company of Chi- 

 cago, at $1 per year. Its object 

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 ner, information regarding psych- 

 ical questions, the relations of 

 mind to the body, etc. 



The Mining Review of Chicago, 

 is the leading mining journal of 

 the United States, published 

 weekly at $3 per year. 



Prof. W. G. Farlow delivered a 

 very interesting popular lecture 

 on marine algse, under the auspi- 

 ces of the San Diego Society of 

 Natural History, the evening of 

 March 26. 



Mr. Joseph Surr, recently of 

 London, gave the fifth lecture of 

 the course under the same auspi- 

 ces, to a large audience, the even- 

 ing of March 30, on "A Walk in 

 London." 



This paper is usually issued on 

 or near the fifteenth of each 

 month. 



