442 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
others of their school considered resin as a destructive slime forma- 
tion secreted by the cellulose wall lining the cavity, or else a starch 
derivative. KArsSTEN (8) was assured of the intimate relation 
between the wall and resin gum in the wall, because of the obscurity 
of the cells in ordinary mounts, whereas the walls became extremely 
clear when treated with alcohol or ether (p. 317). WIGAND (26) 
considered resins to be entirely out of the category of secretions, for 
‘“‘a secretion in our sense is only conceivable as a homogeneous 
material permeable to the cell wall.”” WreSNER (24) believed the 
resin masses to be a complex of resin, cellulose, granulose, tannic 
acid, and “carbonated alkalies,” with the cellulose and granulose 
as intermediate products. 
MUELLER (15) and VAN TreEGHEM (22) were unable to find resin 
in the secretory passages, believing them to be only intercellular 
spaces. MUELLER was probably the first to use alkannin tincture 
on dried tissues to test for resin (p. 390). Mayr (12) thought that 
resin might be secreted by the cells during rapid growth. 
Undoubtedly the most careful and authoritative contemporary 
investigator of resin and the problem of its secretion is TSCHIRCH 
(21), who has given us.a summation of the physiologico-chemical 
literature of the problem, and in addition valuable evidence con- 
tributed from his own studies. Tscurrcu’s investigations have 
convinced him that resins and ethereal oils cannot diffuse through 
membranes which are water-permeable or water-absorbent. All 
such secretions, he asserts, remain where they were first laid down. 
Ecological aspects 
B. sagittata was first described by Nurrat (16) in 1841. The 
plant is a very conspicuous feature of the landscape of the prairies 
and south hill slopes of Wyoming, western Montana, and British 
Columbia. Its leaves are large, auriculate, densely hairy, growing 
up from the permanent rootstock in April at 3500 ft. level in west- 
ern Montana. The flower stocks are plentiful. The flowers are 
golden yellow with conspicuous heads. They begin to bloom about 
the middle of May and continue until July, although they reach 
their maximum bloom during June.. Very soon after fertilization 
the flower parts wither, and by the time the seeds are mature jn 
