414 W. L. Bray. 
elsewhere. It is very remarkable, however, to find a member of the F. in 
this isolated island, which, having retained so little modified the characters 
of typical Frankenia, is still so distinct from forms now living. Particularly 
is there no species in the adjacent continent of Africa from which it could 
have originated, and the only species in the family which shows a striking 
agreement with B. portulacoides is F. Vidalii from the islands San Felix and 
San Ambrosio some 40° West of the Chilan coast about 26° South Latitude. 
The distinguishing characters of Beatsonia are anatomical rather than 
morphological. The floral structure is not like normal Eufrankenia, but it 
does not depart further from this than several other species of Frankenia. 
But among plants which have to adapt themselves to very severe conditions 
— as in the case of halo-xerophytic groups — the more significant cha- 
racters may well have expressed themselves in the vegetative structure, 
particularly in the assimilative organs, where as a consequence we have in 
Frankeniaceae several distinet types of leaves, based on the form, the 
occurrence on the stem, and the anatomical structure. 
Ill. 
Comparison and grouping of the sections considered 
in II, and speculation as to the probable history of the 
Frankeniaceae. 
We have found from the foregoing examination of species that two 
very different conditions prevail in this family. 
4. A very abundant and extensive developement of the family which 
has filled most of the great salt desert regions of the world with a large 
number of forms, closely intergrading in the same region and nearly 
related in the different regions. That is, a present developement of one 
common type embracing Afra-Eufrankenia and Oceania- Toichogonia-cosmo- 
polita. 
2. A large number of monotypic forms occurring in most isolated 
locations entirely disconnected from the above group, and sharply defined 
from each other. That is to say, by all their conditions pointing plainly to 
the fact that they represent the ends of branches, so to speak, the rem- 
nants of a previous developement of the family. Embracing Oceania- 
Toichogonia isolata and -Basigonia and the genera Beatsonia, Niederleinia 
and Hypericopsis. 
Group 1. 
We have seen concerning the first group, that in view of the very 
close relation between species of the different regions, a distribution from 
one to the other must have occurred within comparatively recent time; 
not so recent, however, but that endemism prevails as between regions 
separated by a broad stretch of ocean. 
