EditoriaL /pp 



V^ASHINGTONIA ROBUSTA. 



San Bernardino. California, July 30, 1887. 



Dear »S'z>.-— Yours as to palms received. The description given 

 of robusta is same as I get from other quarters. Some also state 

 that the leaves of robusta are more fringed with filaments than is 

 filifera. I know the place of which you speak, but have never 

 been "high up on the mountain." Palms, there, as well as else- 

 where, grow always in the canyons, as you well know. Your de- 

 scription may apply to "far up in the canyons," — but "up on the 

 mountain side," is simply up on the rocks where nothing grows, 

 for the mountain side in that locality is just bare and jagged rocks 

 of the most desolate possible description. 



Further, as to the description of robusta given, it applies to fili- 

 fera as well. All palms have the yellowish hooked spines or teeth 

 along the edges of the leaf-stems, and the leaf-stems vary in color 

 somewhat, according to age, soil, water and other circumstances, 

 as is the case also as to the filaments. 



My opinion is. and always has been, that robusta is a myth — a 

 false name gotten up solely to ioist upon buyers a new (?) kind of 

 seed at higher rates. I think that the whole thing started from 

 that sentence or two in Bot. Cal., on page 485, Appendix, as to 

 my report to Prof. Watson. I have frequent applications for seeds 

 of robusta, but I always reply that I know of no such species, and 

 utterly refuse to give seed under that name for any price whatever. 



W. G. Wright, 



Ornithology and Oology. — This department is conducted 

 by R. B. Trouslot, Valparaiso, Ind., and all inquiries or commu- 

 nications under this head should be addressed to him. 



EDITORIAL. 



This month we have a variety of news for our readers. Science 

 loses heavily in the death of Prof. Baird, whose life-work is so 

 widely know. The activity of the society of natural history, or 

 rather the signs of future activity in the future is something for 

 congratulation. The union of two earnest students of nature, robs 

 us for a time of one of our workers, but will add to our number in 

 the near future, as Prof, and Mrs. Eigenmann will make their home 

 in San Diego, after their journeyings abroad. The plans for the 

 buildings ot the college of San Diego, to be erected at Pacific 

 Beach, a few miles north of this city. Prof. F. P. Davidson will 

 have charge in the new institution of the natural sciences. Vari- 

 ous other institutions of learning are proposed, among them a 

 University for lower California. A fine museum is secured to 

 Coronado Beach, and another museum will probably be established 

 in this vicinity on a basis unsurpassed by any in the United 



