114 ERYTHEA. 



the cloth, seventy-two inches in width, can be purchased for four- 

 teen cents per yard. In order to fix the colors on the cloth and 

 prevent them from smudging, the crayons are allowed to soak in 

 melted paraffine for a few moments before using. The chalk readily 

 absorbs the paraffine without becoming soft or otherwise deteriorated 

 as a drawing medium. When drawing on the cloth there is suffi- 

 cient friction produced to melt the paraffine, which enters the fabric, 

 carrying the chalk with it. This enables one to make clean perma- 

 nent lines, and the drawing can be folded or rolled up without fear 

 of smudging or obliterating in the least. Where colored figures are 

 desired, almost any effect can be produced by the proper blending of 

 the ordinary colors. Thus if a green is desired, one first applies the 

 blue crayon and then the yellow, varying in quantity according to 

 the tint of green desired. If one is at all skilful at drawing, very 

 good pictures, much resembling and as effective as oil paintings, can 

 be produced. The colors are permanent, and charts thus made can 

 be kept for any length of time. Upwards of a hundred are now in 

 use in the Botanical Department of the University of California, and 

 they vary in style from karyokinetic figures to large habit pictures of 

 insectivorous plants. To those who have large classes in botany or 

 zoology this method of making pictorial demonstrations for the 

 lecture room will be found very desirable and inexpensive. — A. A. 

 Lawson. 



Plants in Flower in November and December, 1897. — 

 Iris longipetala and Iris Doxiglasiana were both found in bloom on 

 the Mission Hills, November 18, by Mrs. W. S. Chandler. On 

 Thanksgiving day, November 25, they were seen and collected by 

 the writer. They are still in bloom, May 25, and numerous buds 

 give promise that they will not cease blooming before June. 



On Thanksgiving day an afternoon tramp over the Mission 

 Hills, near the proposed new park, resulted in finding fifty-eight 

 species in bloom. Twenty-seven of these were indigenous, and the 

 others either introduced or cosmopolitan. 



An excursion over the Presidio hills and gulches on Christmas 

 day was almost as rich in results. Fifty-five species were found in 

 bloom, of which thirty-eight were indigenous. On December 

 26 Mt. Tamalpais was visited, and the tramp to the Rock Spring 



