DISTRIBUTION OF THE MOEE PEOMHS-ENT NATUEAL OEDEES. 243 



found by Galeotti between 6500 and 8000 feet in the Cordillera of Oaxaca; Mono- 

 chcetum alpestre is found in the same mountains at elevations of 8000 to 10,000 feet ; 

 and Salvin met with a species of Monochcetum and a species of Miconia at 8300 to 

 8500 feet on the Volcan de Fuego. JVepsera aquatica, an exceedingly common marsh- 

 plant near the sea from Colombia to South Brazil and throughout the West Indies, we 

 have not seen from within our limits, and we had overlooked a record of it from 

 Panama*. To give an idea of the predominance of this order in America, the 

 numbers of species of a few of the larger genera are added : — Miconia, 300 ; Pleroma, 

 125 ; Oxymeris, 85 ; Clidemia and Osscea, 40. 



Lythracece. 



The principal feature of this order is the genus Cuphea, which comprises sixty-two 

 species out of the total of eighty-two, and constitutes a conspicuous element in the 

 small shrubby and herbaceous flora of Mexico. It is peculiar to America, ranging 

 from the South-eastern States of North America, through the West Indies and Mexico 

 to Chili and Uruguay, with two main centres — one in Mexico, the other in Brazil. 

 Only four species have been discovered in North Mexico, and one of these reaches 

 Southern Arizona. Antherylium nudiflorum is a somewhat anomalous species of the 

 previously monotypic genus, the original species being a native of the West-Indian 

 islands of St. Thomas and Porto Eico. 



Onagrariece. 

 These are chiefly herbs, though a few attain the dimensions of trees. EpiloHum is 

 almost cosmopolitan in distribution, and several other genera range widely; but the 

 order is chiefly American, and strongly characteristic, especially generically, in California 

 and Mexico. It comprises twenty-two genera and about 300 species. Fourteen genera 

 and sixty-six species inhabit California, seven of the genera being represented by only 

 one species each, and several of them are confined to the region. Two, Gayophytum 

 and Boisduvalia, reappear in Chili only. In Mexico and Central America, nearly all 

 in the former, there are fourteen genera, five of which are endemic, and ninety-seven 

 species, of which sixty-seven are endemic. Eight of the non-endemic genera and 

 seventeen of the species extend into western North America. Fuchsia ranges through 

 the Andes to Magellan's Straits, numbering at least fifty species ; it is also represented 

 by one species in San Domingo, West Indies, and three or four inhabit the mountains 

 of Brazil ; and there are three peculiar species in New Zealand. (Enothera is, with 

 the exception of one endemic species in the mountains of Tasmania, peculiar to 

 America, and contains about 100 species, generally spread in the temperate and: 

 subtropical parts, both north and south. The presence of these two strongly marked 

 genera in Australasia only beyond America is very remarkable ; and further particulars 

 * Grisebach, ' Flora of the British West-Indian Islands,' p. 268. 



biol. CENTE.-AMEK., Bot. Vol. IV., August 1887. 2 k 



