THE WEST-AMEEICAN SCIENTIST. 



Parishes, of San Bernardino, who 

 have done a remarakbly extensive 

 work. It is to all these gentle- 

 men that your Society may look 

 to build up its natural history 

 side. I trust they will prepare 

 for the society a full herbarium 

 of Southern California flowers. I 

 hope and anticipate that your so- 

 ciety will do much for science." 



The address of Professor Far- 

 low was of a more scientific na- 

 ture treating of the diseases of 

 fruit trees caused by fungi. 



Dr. Gray, who is accompanied 

 by his wife, and Professor Far- 

 low, made a short stay at San 

 Diego, returning north and visit- 

 ing Santa Barbara and other 

 places of interest in Southern Cal- 

 ifornia. 



• 



GENERAL NOTES. 



Bev. E. L. Greene is en route 

 to Guadaloupe and Cerros Islands 

 on a botanical survey of those 

 places. 



Dr. Asa Gray and wife, with 

 Professor Farlow, made but a 

 short stay at San Diego, leaving 

 for Santa Barbara and San Fran- 

 cisco. They will probably return 

 to the east in May. 



The publisher of this paper, in 

 company with the editor, and sev- 

 eral others, is absent on another 

 botanical expedition into the Cal- 

 ifornian peninsula. 



A pearl weighing 93 carats and 

 valued at $17,000 has just been 

 shipped from Guaymas, Mexico, 

 for London. It was bought of an 

 Indian for $90, and is believed to 

 be the largest in existence. — Can- 

 adian Science Monthly. 



THE GEODE. 



MRS. Z. R. CRONYN 



Before me lies a tiny crystal palace, 

 With doors forever closed, if so I choose, 

 As fair within as any lily's chalice 

 Where night has dropped its offering of dews 



No footstep ever echoed through its arches, 

 No voice has rung through chamber or recess 

 The centuries have passed in long, slow 



marches, 

 And still this palace home is tenantless. 



Ah ! once the little fairies reveled gaily 

 On this old earth of ours, but now no more ! 

 Man's strange devices tear and ruin daily 

 The play -ground where the el vies trooped 

 before. 



Or else I might be sure some tiny creature, 

 Beleaguered here, had walled herself within 

 Where enemy nor element could reach her, 

 Self -separated from accusing kin. 



Perhaps — who knows ? perhaps some pris- 

 oned spirit, 

 Caught fast in one convulsive grasp of fate, 

 So still, that if we list we cannot hear it, 

 Has waited, through the ages, at the gate. 



Then, shadow of unbound Prometheus, 



hover, 

 Above me as I break these prison bars ! 

 And so— I break, and kneel as any lover 

 Beside these wondrous concaves full of 



stars. 



Fair pillars are there, chastely hewn and 



beveled, 

 And colonnades aglitter in the light 

 And pavements, not like man's — all square 



and leveled 

 But rugged with a thousand jewels bright. 



A fitful irridescence quivers faintly 

 About the corridors and columns small 

 And lo, in this recess so white, so saintly, 

 I find the crucifix upon the wall. 



