424 
POPULAR SCIENCE REYIEW. 
BOTANY. 
Mr. Hiern's Monograph of Ebenaceee . — This essay, which, however, we 
have not seen, we are enabled to give an account of from Professor Asa Gray’s 
analysis of it in “ Silliman’s American Journal” for July. It is written by 
Mr. W. P. Hiern, M.A., and is published by the Cambridge Philosophical 
Society (vol. xii. part i.). Professor Gray says, that In a brief account of 
the economical products of the order, 18 species of Diospyros, 2 of Maba, 
and one of Euclea, are said to supply ebony ; not to speak of other hard 
woods, such as box-wood and pear-tree, which are artificially died black, 
and used in commerce as ebony; nor of the ebony of the ancients, which, 
according to Bertolini, was furnished by a Leguminosa. Fourteen species 
of Diospyros yield edible fruits. Much the best, no doubt, is that of the 
Japanese D. Kdki, perhaps because it has been immemorially cultivated ; 
the next may be our N. American Persimmon, which is said to be better fit 
to eat after it has suffered frost. It is hardly edible without it. Characters 
are assigned for distinguishing D. Virginiana from the Asiatic D. Lotus ; 
but it is added that some specimens, of which the native country is un- 
known, are extremely difficult to assign with certainty. For his very full 
list of the numbered collections, with names assigned to the numbers, our 
author has earned hearty thanks. Only five genera are admitted ; and one 
of these is a new one, of a single species, from Madagascar, Tetraclis, well 
marked by the valvate sestivation of the corolla. Not only are lists given of 
the species of each geographical region, but a complete chronological enume- 
ration of all the published species. The treatment of the systematic part of 
the monograph, the Latin diagnoses and the English descriptions, and the 
displayed synonomy, &c., seems wholly creditable ; but there is a surplus of 
punctuation in the diagnoses, each adjective being isolated by a comma. 
The fossil species are all described in an appendix, but the author disclaims 
responsibility for them.” 
Gigantic Evergreens in California . — In the ^‘Proceedings of the Academy 
of Natural Science of California,” Dr. Kellog says he had just returned from 
under the shadow of the finest evergreens that there were in California — 
true chestnut trees, Castanea chrysophylla, from 100 to 200 feet high, 4 to 6 
feet in diameter, with a clean trunk of 50 to 75 feet. Similar statements 
he had made times unnumbered from the Academy’s first existence, and were 
in the “ Proceedings,” but seemed to be overlooked by his Eastern friends. 
He would also state that, on the trip, he had met with the Phus aromatica, 
a shrub found in Sacramento City, on his first arrival, in 1849, and often 
brought to his attention since. This also had often been brought to the 
attention of the Academy. A Viburnum is among the Academy’s collec- 
tion from this part of California (Mendocino County), recently presented, 
besides two specimens of huckleberries, if no more. 
Dr. Dawson's Vieiv as to Prototaxites. — This has been recently expressed 
by Dr. Dawson in the “Monthly Microscopical Journal” for August, as 
opposed to Mr. Carruther’s doctrine. Dr. Dawson says that, in discussing 
affinities, he must repeat that we must bear in mind with what w’e have to 
