Stem simple or dichotomous above, minutely velvety glandular pubescent throughout, upper and cauline leaves lanceolate, acute or acuminate, sessile or sub-sessile, opposite, erect, slightly cilliate at base (radical leaves unknown). Flowers white, very small, sub-solitary on long peduncles; calyx tubular-campanulate, at length inflated, teeth short, acute (tipped with purple), tube ten-nerved; petals not crowned, minute border sub-two-lobed, lamina expanded, claws long and very slender; stamens ten, longer, at length shorter, filaments glabrous, anthers sagittate; styles two to three, separate, recoiled; stigmatose along the entire inner face. Ovary somewhat globose, apex slightly contracted; compressed seeds granular, stipe of the capsule very short. A plant about three to five inches in height. Collected by Mr. Herbert C. Dorr in Nevada Territory. Dr. James Blake read a paper on the gradual elevation of the land in the environs of San Francisco. On the Gradual Elevation of the Land in the Environs of San Francisco. BY JAMES BLAKE, M.D., F.R.C.S. The gradual elevation and depression of large portions of the earth’s surface has, within the last few years, been attracting considerable attention from geologists. It is a vast geological process of which we are the actual spectators, offering us the most imposing terrestrial phenomenon of which we can be cognizant, and at the same time affording us some tangible idea of the vast periods that have been required for bringing the surface of the earth to its present shape. It is the general opinion of geologists that the western shore of our continent is gradually rising. This has been proved to be the case as regards the southern portion of the continent; but the following facts, observed in the neighborhood of this city, afford undoubted evidence that at least this portion of the northern continent is being gradually elevated above the level of the ocean.