Editorial. ly 



EDITORIAL. 



Christmas sends a merry greeting 

 To our friends throughout the world, 

 From a land of merry sunshine 

 To a land of sleet and snow. 



•With this number^ The West American Scientist enters 

 upon its third year in the field of scientific journalism. The year 

 of greatest peril to a venture of this character has been passed by, 

 and we trust that many years of active usefulness remain for it in 

 the future. 



Dr. George Vasey, botanist of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture, has kindly promised to contribute to our pages. 

 The subject of his first article presented herewith, was a pleasant 

 surprise, and we have to thank him also for the excellent figure 

 accompanying it. The article was also furnished our contem- 

 porary, the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, and was 

 intended to have been published simultaneously in the two jour- 

 nals in which intent we failed to carry out our part. 



The third of Prof Keep's interesting series on Eminent 

 Naturalists appears in this number and will be read with interest 

 by many. 



Rev. E. T. Greene also contributes a valuable paper on Sant^ 

 Cruz Island, where he did excellent work in botany the past 

 summer. 



We proposed to have made this issue a special immigration 

 number in the Interests of Southern California, but at the last 

 moment have found it impracticable to do so from several reasons, 

 chief among which was our not obtaining the expected map of 

 San Diego County and adjacent regions, and the failure of several 

 parties to honor their verbal contracts. 



Subscribers, especially those who commenced with the 2nd 

 volume, will please remember that we give twelve numbers for a 

 year's subscription. As we have issued only nine monthly 

 numbers during the past year, three more will be their due. 

 However, many of our subscribers are now in arrears and they 

 would greatly oblige us by paying promptly. 



Now is the time our friends can greatly help this journal, by 

 promptly renewing their subscriptions, by subscribing for their 

 eastern friends, and by endeavoring to obtain subscriptions among 

 their neighbors. Agents wanted to canvass. 



Our readers will be pleased to know that Prof. Josiah Keep Is 

 preparing a new volume entitled "West Coast Shells." The 

 excellent and popular little book, " Common Sea-shells of Cali- 

 fornia," met a long-felt want, and as the edition of that volume is 

 nearly exhausted, a new work becomes desirable. 



