236 . APPENDIX. 



to Guatemala. All the American Cistineae have comparatively inconspicuous flowers, in 

 striking contrast to those of the Old World. 



Vochysiacece. 

 A distinct wholly American order of trees and shrubs placed next to the Polygalacese 

 by Bentham and Hooker. It comprises seven genera and about 125 species, nearly all 

 of which inhabit either Tropical Brazil or Guiana, or both. A very few species 

 of Vochysia are found in Colombia and Eastern Peru, and one Brazilian species 

 (V.ferruginea, Mart.) extends northward of the Isthmus of Panama, occurring at Lion 

 Hill and between Cruces and the town of Panama, as well as in the island of Coiba, off 

 the western coast of Veraguas, about two degrees further north *. The genus Trigonia 

 has, however, the widest area of any of the Vochysiacese, reaching the southern limits 

 of the order in Brazil, and the western limits in Ecuador ; and it is also represented as 

 far north as Guatemala, as appears from Bernoulli's last collection. Humboldt, 

 Bonpland, and Kunth (Nov. Gen. et Sp. v. p. 141) describe a species of Trigonia, 

 which we have not seen, from the Andes of Quindiu at an elevation of 9000 feet. No 

 member of the Vochysiaceae has hitherto been recorded from the West Indies. 



Caryophyllacece . 

 The rediscovery of Mocino and Sesse's genus Cerdia, previously known only from 

 their drawings, by Parry and Palmer, is one of the most interesting results of their 

 investigations in the State of San Luis Potosi; they also added two species to this 

 reduced type of the order. Hymenella is a monotype, and Colobanthus is an Andine 

 and Australasian genus. Drymaria, of which one American species has also a wide range 

 in the Old World, and one is endemic in Australia, finds its greatest concentration in 

 Mexico, where there are nearly a score of species. 



Fouquieriew. 

 The genus Fouquieria, comprising four or five species, constitutes in itself this tribe 

 of the Tamariscineae. It is restricted to Mexico and the contiguous countries, from 

 Western Texas to South-eastern California and Lower California. The species are 

 shrubs or small trees with conspicuous brilliantly coloured flowers, so anomalous in 

 structure that the genus has been not only described thrice, but referred to various orders, 

 including the Polemoniaceae, which it is not unlike in its gamopetalous corolla, exserted 

 stamens, and three styles. It has also been proposed as an independent natural order. 

 Most botanists, however, agree that its greatest affinities are with the TamariscineEe and 

 neighbouring orders. Humboldt treated it as an anomalous genus near the Portulacese. 

 Like the Andine Columellia, it is one of those isolated genera without any near allies 

 that can be placed in no natural order without enlarging its diagnosis. In the dry 

 regions the species of Fouquieria form very striking objects when in flower. 

 * J". D. Smith has since described (Coulter's Botanical Gazette, 1887) a species of Vochysia from Guatemala* 



