I02 GILIA TRICOLOR, TRI-COLORED CILIA. 



years thereafter. During that time he suffered numerous perils 

 and hardships ; but being known to the Indians as " the Big 

 Grass-man," he generally managed to retain their good will. 

 Afterwards he came again to this country, taking chieHy the 

 southern portion of the north Pacific coast. He made a trip to 

 the Sandwich Islands. The nadves there, as in Canada and other 

 places, ensnare wild beasts by digging deep pits, covering them 

 lightly so as to elude the animal's observation, and it then falls 

 through and cannot get out. Douglas fell into one of these, 

 which already had entrapped a wild bull, and he was there gored 

 to death on the 12th of July, 1834. Thus died one of the most 

 diligent and successful explorers and collectors of American 

 plants, and one to whom our gardens are indebted perhaps 

 more than to any other man. It was to his labors especially our 

 first knowledge is due of the plant we now illustrate — G ilia tri- 

 color. It is remarkable how rapidly we have gained knowledge 

 of this beautiful genus of plants. At the present time there are 

 about seventy species, almost all natives of the United States. 

 Yet it is only since 1794 that the first one has been known, and 

 that one, Gilia laciniata, was then described in a work on the 

 Flora of Peru and Chili, published in Madrid by two botanists, 

 Hipolite Ruiz and Jose Pavon, who named the genus, according 

 to Dr. Gray, after " Philip Gil, who helped Xaurez to write a 

 treatise on exotic plants cultivated at Rome." It would have 

 been more pleasant if such a beautiful and exclusively American 

 genus could have commemorated some one connected with 

 American botany, but it is the fortune of scientific discovery and 

 of scientific laws of nomenclature to sometimes work this w^ay. 

 The order to which Gilia belongs, PolenwniacecE, has numerous 

 representadves in the United States, and especially in that part 

 included between the Rocky mountains and the Pacific ocean. 

 Douglas, during his explorations, found no less than twenty-five 

 new species belonging to this order, and new ones are being 

 continually found. Sevend species of Gilia have been recendy 

 described by Dr. Gray and Mr. Sereno Watson. But although 



