32 THE AVEST AMERICAN SCIENTIST. 



EDITOR'S NOTES, 



Subscribers will be notified when their subscriptions to this jourjial expire. 



A leather cannon was proved in Edinburg in 1778, fired three times and pro- 

 nounced good. 



The article on the mollusks of San Diego was crowded out of the February and 

 March numbers. 



This number is priated before the usual time, so that we have nothing to report 

 of societies for April. 



The subject of cremation is being agitated by some of the members of the San 

 Diego Society of Natural History. 



We acknowledge a very interesting paper received from El ward Morren on the 

 ' Sensibility and Motion of Plants.' 



The competition of prison labor with free labor has been widely discussed of 

 late, but the competition is not thought to have any material effect on free labor. 



Paper barometers can be made by soaking paper in a solution of chloride of 

 cobalt. It becomes hygroscopic, and if exposed to the air will change from blue 

 to pink. 



We regret to record the death of the distinguished scientist, Charles Jacques 

 Edward Morren, at Liege, Balgium, the 28th of February, 1886. He was born 

 December 2d, 1833. 



James Britten shows in the February 'Journal of Botany' that the genus 

 Brodiaea of Smith should bear an older name, Hookera of Salisbury. Our species 

 may retain their specific names. 



Among the permanent departments which we hope to establish in this journal 

 are botany and horticulture, vertebrates, lower invertebrates, entomology, psy- 

 chology, correspondence, exchanges, literature, etc. 



A botanical trip of several months' duration is being planned which may pre- 

 vent issuing another number of the Scientist till June or later, but subscribers will 

 not be the losers — rather the gainers, as some valuable information will probably be 

 secured for publication . 



Subscribe! Books, natural history specimens or stamps are acceptable. All 

 are invited to contribute. It was intended ere this to have enlarged the size of this 

 journal very material y, but delays and other difficulties have arisen which render 

 it impracticable to do so before the end of summer. We shall endeavor to give all 

 subscribers the value of their money. 



The peninsula in front of San Diego city is being improved by a company who 

 propose making it a popular resort and to which the name Coronado Beach has been 

 applied. In boring for artesian water, a strata of sand was found containing num- 

 erous fossil shells of the later tertiaries. The more prevalent species were Phasian- 

 ella conipta, Ostrea lurida and Ajiomia lampe in the order named. The strata was 

 found at a depth of nearly seventy feet. 



