426 Scientific Intelligence. 
Santa Cruz. It is earnestly hoped that the appeal which Mr. 
Ralph Sydney Smith very eloquently and sensibly makes may be 
successful. If nothing ‘is done to preserve for posterity a speci- 
men of Redwood forest, including, if possible, some of the large 
trees, future and not far distant generations of Californians will 
have cause to revile the memory of their forefathers. Time was 
when we had hoped for a government reservation of such forest, 
of ten miles square, in the northwestern part of the State, and it 
would have cost nothing. But the plan now broached, although 
it will cost something, has the great advantage of fairly securing 
this object and at the same time giving to San Francisco an unri- 
valed park quite within the reach of its citizens. Let us hope that 
the few great Redwoods which survive above Santa}Cruz may 
form an annex to this reservation. Unless something of this kind 
is speedily done, one of the peculiar glories of the State of Cali- 
fornia will in the next century be only a tradition. 
Notes of a Naturalist in South America, by John Ball, F.R.S., 
etc., is a duodecimo volume of 417 pages (London, Kegan, Paul 
& Co.), which we had hoped to give an account of. Especially one 
would wish to discuss the two appendices, viz: A. On the fall of 
temperature in ascending to heights above the sea-level, and B. 
Remarks on Mr. Croll’s theory of secular changes of the earth’s 
‘climate. We can only commend them to the consideration of 
those interested in terrestrial physics and meteorology. 
Pittonia, a Series of Botanical Papers, by Edward L. Greene, 
Assistant Professor of Botany in the University of California, 
Vol. i, part 1. Berkeley, California, March, 1887.—An octavo of 
48 pages. No preface or announcement is given. We may infer 
that Pittonia is in reference to the family name of Tournefort, and 
that the publication may have for its model the Adansonia of 
Baillon; but the ideas of genera and species are on quite another 
model. Perhaps the plan may be that of the Linnea; for, as in 
that occasional rather than serial publication, a portion of the pages 
is given to reviews of recent botanical literature. Good botanists 
have followed Decaisne in referring the Big-roots to Echinocystis ; 
but we suppose that the validity of the genus Megarrhiza may 
still be seriously defended. The various new species of Trifolium, 
Zauschneria, etc., and the recast of Krynitzkya, Plagiobothrys, 
etc., into new forms may be safely left to the final judgment of 
competent botanists. Professor Greene’s judgment and ours are 
widely divergent. 
Dr. August Gattinger has issued, in a thick and neatly printed 
pamphlet of 109 pages, 8vo, Zhe Tennessee Flora, with special 
reference to the Klora of Nashville ;-Phenogams and Vascular 
Cryptogams, 1867.—The preface, full of pleasant personal details 
and grateful acknowledgments, is followed by a very interesting 
sketch of the general aspect of the flora of Tennessee and of its 
four natural floral arrondisements, which are graphically de- 
scribed, geographically, geologically and phytologically. We 
should be glad to quote the whole of it. Separate lists are given 
Cd 
