396 W. L. Bray. 
This makes a reasonable hypothesis upon which to account for the 
distribution of plants in salt desert regions so widely separated by im- 
possable barriers of ocean, or mountains, or luxuriant tropics, that no 
known means is sufficient to account for a transportation of the seeds 
between the regions as they now are. An interesting illustration occurs in 
the Frankeniaceae. A certain section, Basigonia, contains four members 
distributed as follows. 4. West-Australia. 2. Salt-steppes of Argentine. 
3. Lower California. 4. Eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. A direct 
transportation of seeds between these regions seems impossible. To suppose 
that in an earlier age salt-steppe regions permitted a wide distribution of 
a type from which these forms could be derived, is reasonable, provided, 
of course, the facts of genetic relationship harmonize with this supposition. 
If a reason be sought for presenting the small group of Frankeniaceae 
under the title above given, it lies in these two facts. 1. That they occupy, 
or are represented in nearly all of the salt-steppe regions of the earth, and 
are without exception dwellers in salt soils. 2. That they are sharply 
distinguished from groups of plants which are not halophytic. 
It seemed both interesting and profitable therefore, to enter into a 
detailed account of the genetic relationships and the phenomena of distri- 
bution in this family, because, having, to all appearance, been identified 
through a long time with the kind of region in which we find them, these 
facts might be expected to stand in an instructive relationship to the phylo- 
genetic history of the family. 
Systematic, 
The Frankeniaceae were first presented in full in their systematic 
order by Niepenzu in »Pflanzenfamilien« to which publication the reader 
is referred for a comprehensive discussion of the family. The present article 
will use this arrangement as the basis for discussion, offering only such 
emendations as seem warranted by a careful study of the family in the light 
of previous research and with additional material for examination. 
As defined in »Pflanzenfamilien« the Frankeniaceae are comprised 
in the four genera Frankenia L., Hypericopsis Boiss., Beatsonia Roxb, and 
Niederleinia Hieron. To these is to be added a fifth, Anthobryum Phil.') 
which is referred to the Frankeniaceae by Reıcuz and Jonow, Flora de 
Chile I. 1896. Concerning the first three genera, there has been a 
tendency on the part of botanists to combine these in the one genus Fran- 
kenia, and if we regard only the floral characters, this could appropriately 
be done, including Niederleinia as well (likewise Anthobryum). But two 
4) Viaje a la Prov. de Tarapaca (1894) p. 54; A. tetragonum Phil. 1. c. Pl. II Fig. 3. 
A. aretioides |. c. Fig. 4. These forms will be discussed with F. triandra Remy under 
South American species, sect. Jsolata, the Puna Region. 
