Herbs with prehensile branchlets. Leaves.—Alternate; short-petioled; lanceolate to oblong-ovate; entire; an inch long. Flowers.—Six lines long; lavender. Sepals.—Five; upper one large; oblong; the others small, linear. Stamens.—Four; in pairs; on the corolla. Filaments slender. Anthers with two diverging cells. Ovary.—Two-celled. Style awl-shaped. Hab.—Throughout the western part of the State.

When the first dryness of summer is beginning to make itself felt, the tall wandlike sprays of the little lilac snapdragon begin to appear along our dusty roadsides. A curious feature of this plant is to be found in the long threadlike branchlets produced in the axils of the leaves. These are like so many little arms, apparently waving about in aimless abandon, but in reality vigilant of any opportunity to grasp some convenient object of support.

Another species—A. glandulosum, Lindl.—is common from Santa Cruz southward. This may be known by its pink and yellow flowers, its very viscid, leafy stems, three to five feet tall, and its lack of prehensile branchlets. This has somewhat more the look of the familiar garden species. Its anthers are arranged like teeth in the roof of its mouth, and the children, by slightly pinching the sides of its funny little countenance, can make it open its mouth in quite a formidable manner.

Sir John Lubbock, writing of the fertilization of flowers, says: "Thus the Antirrhinum, or snapdragon, is completely closed, and only a somewhat powerful insect can force its way in. The flower is in fact a strong-box, of which the humble-bee only has the key."

[VIOLET SNAPDRAGON—Antirrhinum vagans.]

CALIFORNIAN HAREBELL. BELLFLOWER.

Campanula prenanthoides, Durand. Harebell or Campanula Family.

Stems.—Several inches to two feet high. Leaves.—Alternate; ovate-oblong to lanceolate; one inch or less long. Flowers.—Blue; on recurved pedicels. Calyx.—Growing to the ovary below; with five awl-shaped teeth. Corolla.—Five to eight lines long; with short tube and slender, spreading, recurved lobes. Stamens.—Five. Ovary.—Three- to five-celled. Style club-shaped; much exserted. Stigma becoming three-lobed. Hab.—Coast woods from Monterey to Mendocino County, and through the northern Sierras.