Description of two New Species of Plants from Nevada Territory.
BY A. KELLOGG, M.D.
Aplopappus Cass.
A. Nevadensis Kellogg. [[Fig. 1.]]
Fig. 1.
Suffrutescent, caudex branching, branches three to four inches in height, somewhat ascending; rigid, striate, scabrous throughout. Heads solitary and terminal, homochromous and many-flowered. Leaves alternate, crowded near the base, oblanceolate, very acute, quite entire, three-nerved; the reticulate veins and nerves prominent, sub-petiolate (half to one inch in length, by about one-fourth in breadth); the lowermost leaves more distinctly petiolate, spatulate, obtuse, or sub-acute; upper cauline leaves few or solitary, lanceolate, very acute or acuminate, three-nerved.
Involucre campanulate, the greenish somewhat foliaceous scales rigid, many-nerved, (chiefly three to five) margins scarious, cleft-ciliate, or somewhat fimbriate, oblanceolate, acute, in three series, often one or two bractoid scales at the base.
Receptacle flat, alveolate; alveoli toothed, naked. Rays (about eight) orange-yellow, oblong-oval, two or three-toothed, pistillate, fertile, tube slender, about as long as the achenia, or one-third to half the length of the ligule.
Disk corolla cylindrical, slightly expanding, five-toothed, erect, glabrous. The achenia (about twenty, including the ray) angular, oblong, somewhat compressed; base cuneate, satiny appressed pubescent (with white hairs); pappus of unequal capillary scabrous bristles, rigid and fragile, or deciduous.
Appendages of the style much longer than the stigmatic portion, lance-subulate, hispid, much exsert, erect-spreading.
This plant was brought from Nevada Territory by Mr. Herbert C. Dorr.
Mirabilis L.
M. Californica Gray, Var. villosa Kellogg.
Stem about a foot in height, somewhat ascending, flexuous, divaricately branching, nodose, internodes slightly curved; minutely villous throughout. Leaves rounded-cordate, obtuse, entire, three to five-nerved; the uppermost ovate-cordate, petioles short, (one-fourth to one-sixth the length of the lamina).
Flowers pedicellate, in loose terminal dichotomous panicles, with a solitary flower in the axils; perigonium pink, pedicels recurved in fruit.
This plant, from the interior—Devil’s Gate and Carson River—differs much from the plate of the coast plant of the Mexican Boundary Report. It is not at all “glabrous,” nor are the flowers “sub-sessile;” the pairs of leaves are remote, with a much more open and spreading aspect; the flowers are pentandrous and deciduous.
Mr. Harris exhibited a section of a pile, from a wharf at Rincon Point, which fell a few days since, having been destroyed by the boring of the Teredo, (properly a Xylotrya.) The material of the pile is Oregon pine; it had been in the water less than six years, but is now completely perforated in all directions. The subject of the best means of protection for piles, against attacks of the Teredo, was discussed at some length by various members.
Dr. Ayres stated that, as yet, no reliable preventive had been discovered, except that of sheathing the pile with metal. Several years ago the same subject came before the Academy, and Drs. Ayres and Trask were appointed a Committee to investigate the subject. All external applications which have been proposed fail in practice, from the wearing away of the surface by the waves, and they are but little better than the natural bark. It has not appeared that the saving in time was equal to the expense incurred by thus protecting the piles. At Boston, where there are two species destructive of timber, they find no preventive, short of sheathing the piles with copper.
In the French works on this subject, it has been stated that the bark affords no protection; but, on the contrary, aids the young animals in introducing themselves into the wood. This has not been found to be the case in this bay, where the bark does, on the contrary, assist in preserving the timber.
The fact was also stated, by one of the members, that the piles of the wharfs in the southern part of the city suffer much from attacks of the Teredo; while those of the northern portion are comparatively exempt. The fact was mentioned, that piles have been entirely destroyed here in six months from the time they were placed in the water.
Prof. Brewer made some remarks on the method of calculating altitudes by observation with a single barometer. He gave an account of the methods adopted by the Geological Survey for computation, in cases where there was no station barometer nearer than the bay, or the valley of the Sacramento.
Dr. Trask mentioned that the weight of the Honcut meteoric iron presented by him to the Academy, at the meeting of March 17th, 1862, was six ounces, one hundred and twenty-eight grains, troy.
Professor Whitney called attention to the curious errors in a paper published in Petermann’s Mittheilungen, 1861, page 133, which purports to be a translation into German of a portion of a work published by Mr. J. Xantus, describing his journey in Lower California. He describes a quicksilver mine of great importance as being worked at Marques; but the description which he gives of it shows that it is the New Almaden mine which, in reality, he visited, and which, by some confusion of his notes, he has located in Lower, instead of Upper California. No mercury mine is worked on the California peninsula, so far as can be ascertained. It is evident that Mr. Xantus’s notice of rich gold, lead and copper mines on the peninsula must be taken with many grains of allowance.
On motion of Dr. Ayres, it was ordered, that twenty-five copies of the second volume of the Proceedings be placed at the disposal of the Publishing Committee for distribution to learned societies, public libraries, and distinguished scientific men in the Atlantic States.