CALIFORNIAN FIELD NOTES. 85 



itic to propose as a new species what may be but a form of S. 

 asiephanus, but while the differences are not great they are 

 probably as good specific characters as many of the species 

 of this series can show; so for the present it may be named 



w 



Senecio ilicetorum. Stems erect, from a biennial or 



perennial root, 1^ to 3 feet liigh, very floccose-woolly, at 

 length glabrate above: radical leaves at first floccose beneath, 

 thin, ample, undivided, 8 to 12 inches long, including the 

 petiole, elliptic oblong, acute at both ends, coarsely dentate, 

 the teeth spreading, triangular, callous-tipped, the sinuses 

 rounded and the larger of them denticulate; lower cauline 

 leaves resembling the radical, with very short petioles rapidly 

 becoming sessile, the uppermost narrow lanceolate entire of 

 irregularly dentate: head i to | of an inch in diameter, and 

 less than \ an inch in depth, nearly sessile, 6 to 10 in num- 

 ber, closely crowded on the top of the peduncle: scales of the 

 involucre lanceolate acuminate, with few calyculate ones at 

 the base: rays none: all the flowers fertile. Flowering end 



May 



The type specimens are in 



the herbaria of Harvard University and of Professor Greene. 



AN EDITORIAL ON SOME EDITORIALS. 



It is possible that in some far off future age, men will look 

 back to our own epoch as one in which there was singular 

 devotion to high ideals; in which people were wholly ab- 

 sorbed in the most enthusiastic pursuit of pure science, and 

 deep learning, willing to forego bodily comforts and luxuries 

 in the pursuit of these ends, and scorning pelf. Such pos- 

 sible future readers— sadly misunderstanding the real spirit 

 of our time— might commend the Botanical Gazette's recent 

 appeal for the recognition of cash values in botany; though 

 I doubt if a critical reader, in any conceivable situation, could 

 approve the editorial holding up for commendation, of "A 

 well known botanist, who has occupied a public position for 

 many years," which man is so little of a true scientist, and so 



r 



