THE WEST-AMEBICAN SCIENTIST. 



AMERICAN PEARLS. 



At the Philadelphia meeting of 

 the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, Mr. Geo. 

 E. Kunz, with Tiffany & Co., New 

 York, read a preliminary paper on 

 the "American Pearl," treating of 

 its history, production, value, and 

 uses; quoting in part facts and 

 figures furnished by Messrs. Tif- 

 fany & Co., (purchasers of many 

 thousands of these pearls) cover- 

 a period from 1857 to date. As 

 lie is still engaged on this subject 

 which will in the near future be 

 illustrated and published by the 

 U. S. Fisheries Commission in 

 their bulletin, he would greatly 

 appreciate mid give full credit for, 

 any reliable facts that may be fur- 

 nished. 



It is desirable to know of the 

 occurrence of pearls in any mol- 

 luscs on the California coast, and 

 especially of their occurrence in 

 the "abelone"( species of Haliotis) 

 and of what kind — loose or at- 

 tached. Small black pearls are 

 found in the common cockle (Ve- 

 nus) quite frequently and occa- 

 sionally a pearl is found in Pach- 

 yclesma. 



BOOKS RECEIVED FOR S. S. N. II. 



Revision of the Stenini of Amer- 

 ica, North of Mexico, by Thos. L. 

 Casey, Lieut, of Engineers. This 

 is a valuable work on the insects 

 of the order Coleoptera containin g 

 over 200 pages and describing a 

 great number of new species, 

 many of them from California. 

 The author (residing at 1125 Gi- 

 rard Street, Phil. ) would be great- 

 ly obliged by receiving specimens 

 of beetles from this vicinity. 



GENERAL NOTES. 



The common scorpion of Cali- 

 fornia is Scorpio allenii, Wood, 

 the only species of the genus 

 found in North America. 



Balanus estrellanus, Conrad, is 

 the large fossil barnacles found 

 in a well at this city, about 40 feet 

 from the surface. 



Aspecimenof Chlamydoconcha, 

 about the size of a large pea, has 

 lately been sliced into 200 slices 

 at the National Museum, for mi- 

 croscope examination. 



"We cannot be very far wrong 

 in estimating the light of full 

 moon as about a seventy-thous- 

 andth of the sunlight anywhere 

 on the earth" is the conclusion 

 reached by Sir William Thomson 

 in recent computations.— [Science 



About fifty species of crustace- 

 ans are found in and near San 

 Diego bay. The Craw-fish, a spe- 

 cies of Panulirus, is the only one 

 of economic value, though there 

 are several small edible crabs. 

 The experiment of introducing 

 the eastern lobster into California 

 waters some years ago was not 

 very successful. 



Among our floral entertainers 

 on Neiv Year's day we would men- 

 tion the bell of the season Miss 

 Arctostaphylos Bicolor: the De- 

 cember favorite, Miss Saxifraga 

 Parryi, and the Misses Bigelovia, 

 Eriogonum, Euphorbia, Stephan- 

 omeria, Encelia — the last of our 

 autumn visitors, and Miss Ceano- 

 thus, one of the first among our 

 spring guests — who join us in 

 wishing our readers a glad New 

 Year. 



