152 MK. J. BALL ON THE BOTANY 



little gullies tliat des^eend from the plateau to the sea-beach 

 close to Payta. The form described by Jussieu, which seems to 

 differ only in having smaller flowers, Avas first collected by 

 Dombcy near Lima, and has been since found at several stations 

 in the dry country, about the foot of the Cordillera in Peru, 

 The large-flowered raiiety is luiown, I believe, only from Payta 

 and from Manta in Ecuador, \vhcnce there is a specimen in Kew 

 Herbarium collected by Dr. Sinclair. I know very little of the 

 coast-region of Ecuador north of tbe Gulf of Gunynquil, but I 

 ■was struck by the arid aspect, as seen from the sea, of the portion, 

 aLout 100 miles in lenn^tli, between (lie headlands Cabo San 

 Lorenzo and Cabo Santa Elena. It seems probable that this tract 

 shares to a considerable extent in the influence of the Humboldt 

 current, and the accompanying cool southern breezes which 

 maintain the exceptional aridity of the coasts of Peru and 

 Kortheni Chili. The presence of Galvesia at Manta, a small 

 seaport close to the Cabo San Lorenzo, strongly confirms this 

 conjecture. 



I must here be allovred to express a doubt whether Galvesia 

 should he maintained as a genus distinct from Antirrliinum. So 

 long as we had to deal with the Old-World forms of the latter 

 genus, where the mouth of the corolla is closed by the inflexion 

 of the palate, or lower lip, the Peruvian plant appeared to be so 

 far diflcrcnt that no one would have thought of ranking it in the 

 same genus. But the progress of discovery in western North 

 America has made known to us a complete series of forms 

 connecting our common Snapdragon with species in whicli the 

 mouth of the corolla is completely open. Two species in parti- 

 cular, Antirrliinum spcciosum, A. Gr., and A.Junceum, A. Gr., 

 forming the section Gamleliaoi Gray and of Bentham, approach 

 so nearly in structure to our Galvesia, that it seems to me that 

 the latter must be placed in the same section of the genus, being 

 in most respects intermediate between them in character and 

 appearance, while the bright crimson corollas of the three closely 

 resemble each other. A. speciosuni was first described as the 

 type of a new genua, Gamhelia, by Nuttall ; and A.Junceum was 

 described by Bentham, in the 'Botany of the Voyage of the 

 Sulphur,' as MauranJia juncea. In preparing the general 

 revision of the Scroplularinece, for the tenth volume of 

 DeCandidle's ' Prodromus,' Bentham left the last-named species 

 in Maurandia, and in describing Galvesia remarks tliat it id 



