Studies on the Rocky Mountain Flora— IX 



I'.Y 1'. A. IvYDllKRi; 



THE NYCTAGINIACEAE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION 



The family Nyctaginiaceac has been sorely neglected by the 

 systematic botanists in this country. Until lately we have had not 

 even an attempt at a monographic work since Dr. Gray's notes were 

 published in the Botany of the United States and Mexican Boun- 

 dary Survey in 1859. Gray's treatment there as a whole can 

 scarcely be regarded as an improvement on that by Choisy, pub- 

 lished ten years earlier in De Candolle's Prodromus, and of course, 

 both are now out of date. Professor Hcimerl's treatment in Die 

 ucxturlichcn PJJanzcnfamilioi is as good as could be expected from 

 a European monographing an almost exclusively American»family ; 

 but this gives little help beyond the genera. Recently there has 

 appeared a revision of the family by Marcus E. Jones * as it is 

 represented on the Great Plateau. As the territory covered by 

 Jones practically includes that treated in this article, it would seem 

 superfluous to duplicate the work ; but I have had the advantages 

 of a large library and the rich collections of Columbia University, 

 the United States National herbarium, and the New York Botan- 

 ical Garden. These advantages are, however, somewhat balanced 

 by Mr. Jones' longer field experiences. Jones' paper is valuable 

 because it gives fuller descriptions of many poorly known species, 

 descriptions drawn by a botanist who knows the species in the 

 field. It is deplorable, however, that this paper in many places 

 shows a good deal of carelessness, especially in the matter of cit- 

 ing publications. Under Allionia, it has for instance : 

 " 5. A. GLABER t (Wats.) Kuntze, Am. Nat. 76," and 

 "7. A. AGOREGATA (Vahl) Sprcng. Ic. 5 437." 

 In the first case, one would suppose that Kuntze published the 

 combination in the American Naturalist, while the fact is that Wat- 

 son there published Oxybaplius glabcr, on which Allionia glabra is 

 based. 



* Contributions to Western Botany, lo : 34-54- June, 1902. 

 •)• This should have been A. glabra. 



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