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THE WEST-AMEEICAN SCIENTIST. 



The West-American Scientist 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY 

 Especially devoted to the Pacific Coast. 



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C. R. ORCUTT, 



SAN DIEGO, CAL. 



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SAN DIEGO, CAL., MARCH, 1885. 



ERITRICHIUM. 



Dr. Asa Gray, in recent contri- 

 butions to the botany of N. A., 

 reduces Eritrichium to a subgen- 

 us of Omphalodes, distributing 

 the species through several gene- 

 ra, the larger number falling to 

 Krynitzkia and Plagiobothrys, 

 two genera formerly suppressed 

 which are now reestablished. 



The check-list of our plants 

 is changed as follows, the species 

 of Eritrichium becoming;— 

 Krynitzkia californica, Gray. 



var. subglochidiata, Gray. 



oxycarya, Gray. 



microstachys, Greene, 



angusti folia, Gray. 



barbigera, Gray. 



intermedia, Gray. 



muriculata, Gray. 



Jonesii, Gray. 



micrantha, Gray. 



var. lepida, Gray 



circumscissa, Gray,L. Cal. 



pterocarya, Gray. 



ramosissima, Gray, (E. ra- 

 cemosum. ) 



Jamesii, (S.Bernardino.) 



leucophaea, S. E. Cal. 



Echidiocarya urcina becomes 

 Plagiobothrys ursinus, and E. 

 californica, P. Cooperi. 



ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 



W. H. Dall of Washington, D. 

 C, finds upon the examination of 

 the animals of Nacella depicta and 

 N. paleacea that they belong to the 

 genus Acmsea instead of Nacella. 



J. J. Rivers of the University of 

 California, has collected some 

 small corals,Balanophyllia elegans 

 (Verrill) on rocks a little below r 

 low water mark at Monterey. The 

 animal is of a beautiful red color 

 and might easily be taken for a 

 small actinia. 



A new work on the land shells 

 of North America, by W. G. Bin- 

 ney, to be published by the Smith- 

 sonian Inst., is now in press. 



A small slug, perhaps unde- 

 scribed, has been found in this 

 county and in Low r er California, 

 and is now in the hands of an em- 

 inent foreign scientist for deter- 

 mination. 



Pearls are sometimes found in 

 the common California mussle. 



Mr. J. W. Huggins, of this city, 

 discovered in his garden a small 

 bird, evidently fastened in a tree 

 which upon approaching was 

 stimulated to a successful ef- 

 fort to escape. It was found that 

 it had left several of its tail 

 feathers which had been securely 

 fastened to the tree by a strong 

 spider's web. 



The same observer noticed an- 

 other bird in evident distress 

 which also escaped upon his ap- 

 proach, leaving several feathers 

 in the mouth of a scorpion's bur- 

 row. 



