1886. | BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 339 
rarity. It may have been passed over as a Githopsis, ax it has somewhat the 
aspect of a depauperate form of this common plant. 
The following species of Gilia was also found in a district supposed to be 
pretty thoroughly explored. Professor Gray informs me that I may regard it 
as a new species, quite as good as some other of the troublesome forms which 
have come to light, and which almost efface the distinction between the sec- 
tions Dactylophyllum and Leptosiphon. I have had Professor Gray’s kind and 
needful help in shaping the characters of these two species so as to render them 
more diagnostic than they would have been in my inexperienced hands. 
CAMPANULA ExIGUA. Annual, 2 to 5 inches high, with spreading branches, 
hirsute below, puberulent or almost glabrous above: leaves very small (1 to 3 
lines long), sessile, lowest lanceolate or obovate, entire or with a few coarse teeth, 
upper subulate ; flowers solitary at end of the slender divergent branches or short 
peduncles, erect: calyx-lobes subulate-linear, usually twice the length of the 
campanulate or somewhat turbinate tube, erect, connivent after flowering: cor- 
olla oblong-campanulate, light blue ; tube about the length of the calyx-lobes, 
longer than its oblong acute lobes; filaments ‘abruptly dilated below the mid- 
dle into a broad ciliolate base: style not surpassing the corolla: capsule some- 
what urceolate, opening by three valves above the middle.—Summit of Monte 
Diablo, June 14, 1886. Also collected, July 3,on Tamalpais, by Mrs. Curran, 
in fall fruit and in a larger and coarser form. The species will rank along 
with C. Reverchoni of Texas, in a separate subdivision. 
Gra AmBIGUA. Habit and foliage of G. Bolanderi, but more erect and 
stouter: corolla much larger, over half-inch long, nearly thrice the length of 
the calyx, its proper tube equalling the latter or somewhat exserted, the obcon- 
only other Gilia seen near it was G. dichotoma.—V OLNEY 
A pleasing experiment in laboratory practice.—The following expe- 
i i asses in vegetable anatomy while 
that the outer layer of the external coat is in the field. Pass a drop of water 
under the cover-glass and watch the section. As soon as the liquid strikes the 
mucilaginous layer the cells composing it at once enlarge and their dissol veil 
contents float out upon the slide. That which before was a hyaline line, seem- 
ingly amorphous, becomes a series of cells nearly uniform in size. The thin- 
ness of the section and the unusual exposure of the mucilage permits of the 
quick outward movement of the cells much to the delight of the student. For 
a time it was quite a puzzle how the side walls of the rapidly expanding cells 
could accommodate themselves to the sudden expansion. A quantity of flax- 
seed was soaked in water, the liquid being changed frequently during a day or 
more, and the seeds afterwards dried with blotting paper. Upon making thin 
sections of these seeds, and treating the outer layer as above described, the side 
walls were well defined, and their method of expanding became plain. These 
