~ 700 Scientific News. [ November, 
extent than he had any notion of. The publications of Gray and others, 
had made him aware that there is a broad line of distinction between the 
vegetation east of the Mississippi and west of it, but he did not expect 
to find the variety so great as it is, and he was strongly inclined to say, 
though he said it under correction, that there is probably a greater dif- 
ference between the east and west coasts of the American continent than 
there is between any two similarly related regions in any part of the 
globe; that you may travel from England to Spain, from Siam to China, 
without finding so diverse vegetations as by crossing the Mississippi and 
comparing the banks one hundred miles east on one side with one hun- 
dred miles west on the other. As far as the country east of the Missis- 
sippi is concerned, he was, by practical observation, almost entirely © 
ignorant. He knew nothing of it except from the copious notes of Pro- 
fessor Gray conned while traveling. Since then he had the opportunity 
of spending some weeks in the Rocky Mountains and then of coming 
here, and he found a more curious difference than he had anticipated in 
the vegetation between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. 
He had every reason to suppose that this great difference of vegetation 
exists south of the parallel along which he had traveled. Time had not 
allowed them to digest the notes collected on the way, and more than he 
had announced he was not prepared to say. The president had asked him 
tosay afew words with respect to the Academy. In England they knew 
well enough what it is to wait for results; but he might be believed 
when he said that the destinies of science on this coast are great, and a 
time will come that will show great results, and that will come with im- 
mense force, and for these two reasons: There is here a most intelligent 
and most active and progressive population, and, in the second place, 
there is here one of the most remarkable assemblages of natural objects 
and physical phenomena that any part of the world possesses. In speak- 
ing thus, he included the whole coast north and south of California. 
There is no section of the earth in which so many singular phenomena 
can be observed as in this. Without seeking to give advice, he might 
point out what has been the element of success in the greatest Academy 
of England, the Royal Society. It began with very few men, and for 
the best part of two centuries it was supported by what he might, with- 
out disrespect to his ancestors in science, call elderly people. It was by 
the elderly men who loved science, holding together congenially year after 
year, and almost century after century, that the young men of the society 
were drawn to it, and it is but lately that young men in any numbers 
have come into the society. For success there are three principal ele- 
ments, — the holding together of the elderly members, of those who have 
had experience of this life in other matters than science, and who bring 
that experience together, with methodized common sense, of which 
science consists, to bear upon the objects of the society itself. In the 
second place, there is the important work of the secretary, together with 
. 
