THE WEST AMEEICAN SCIENTIST. 



Editor's Notes. 



It is considered probable that Dr. Parry and his wife will visit 

 San Diego this winter. 



Mr. G. W. Lichtenthaler, of Bloomington Illinois, intends to 

 spend the winter months in California. Mr. Lichtenthaler has 

 traveled over the Atlantic coast and from San Diego to Alaska on 

 the Pacific coast and visited other places in forming his fine col- 

 lection of marine plants and shells, and has over 50,000 specimens 

 of the latter, 800 specimens of marine plants, and nearly all the 

 ferns of the United States. 



Two important events were celebrated in the United States on 

 the 18th. of November last : one, the 75th, birthday of the nation's 

 botanist, Dr. Asa Gray, of Cambridge Mass. ; and the other, the 

 completion of a transcontinental railway to San Diego. At the 

 suggestion of the Editors of the 'Botanical Gazette', many of the 

 botanists of North America united in presenting to the foremost 

 botanist of the country a token of love and esteem in the shape of 

 a silver vase appropriately decorated with some distinctively Amer- 

 erican plants which are most closely associated with Dr. Gray. In 

 San Diego, the importance of the day was made memorable by 

 processions, speaking, and a grand display of the horticultural pro- 

 ductions of the county. 



Saxifraga Parryi still remains in bloom, notwithstanding that it 

 made its first appearance as early as the last of September; this 

 reminds us that it was in its glory when the first number of this 

 journal appeared and that with this number we enter upon a sec- 

 ond year of the West American Scientist. 



'Diluvium, on the end of the world', by Geo. S. Pidgeon, 1885 

 predicts that the end will occur about the year 1892, basing the 

 prediction on natural causes which are discussed at length that 

 would have a tendency to destroy the earth's eduilibrium in case 

 the Sahara desert is flooded as has been proposed. Those looking 

 for the near approach of the end of the world will find the logic a 

 startling indication of the fulfilment of their expectations. Price, 

 in paper 11.00 ; in cloth $1.25. This office. 



• 



Pearls. From the California pearl shell, 25 cents to $10 each; frmn the cockle, 

 Venus fluctifraga, ten to twenty-live cents; from the pearl oyster, $1 upwards; Jap- 

 anese 'cat's eye pearl,' $1. Every cabinet should contain one of these pearls. 



Coins in any quantity wanted in return for shells, curiosities, etc. 



Books — old or new Or on any subject — always wanted at this office: we never pay 

 cash except for rare works. A large number of books for sale, and we can always 

 supply anything that may be wanted with promptness. 



The southern geologist. The only paper published in the south, devoted to 

 geology and archaeology. A list of the best American writers has been secured for 

 1886. Only 50 cents per year, 5 cents per copy. Subscribe now, and receive a fine 

 Indian arrow head (mention this paper). J. A. Murkin, Jr., Nashville, Tenn. 



