A Revision of the Family Fouquieriaceae 



By George V. Nash 



During an attempt to identify one of the species of Fougiticiia 

 which flowered in the conservatories of the New York Botanical 

 Garden during the past June, much confusion was found to exist, 

 both in the identification of herbarium material and in the litera- 

 ture bearing upon this family. So great was this confusion that 

 the writer was eventually compelled to extend his examinations 

 beyond the point he had anticipated, and finally realized that a re- 

 vision of the family was necessary before any definite results could 

 be obtained. No recent treatment, involving a consideration of 

 the species, could be found, and the apparent need of such work 

 encouraged the author to enter upon the following revision, which, 

 it is hoped, will throw some light upon an interesting family and 

 one but little understood. As here regarded, it embraces two 

 genera and seven species, three of which are here described for the 

 first time. 



The relationship of the family is rather puzzling, and a satis- 

 factory solution of the difificulty has not as yet been proposed. 

 By Bentham and Hooker (Gen. PI. I : i6i) it was made a tribe 

 of Tamaricaceae, and the same treatment was accorded to it by 

 Engler and Prantl (Nat. Pfl. 3'' : 298). Subsequently PIngler 

 (Nat. Pfl. Nachtr. 251) maintained that the family was better kept 

 separate from Tamaricaceae on account of its oily endosperm and 

 gamopetalous corolla. Its distribution would also tend to confirm 

 this distribution of the group, for Tamaricaceae, with Fouquieria- 

 ceae removed, is strictly Old World, while Fouquieriaceae itself is 

 confined to North America, and primarily to its arid regions. 



While Engler changed the rank of this family, he indicated no 

 change in its relationship. It is hardly within the scope of a re- 

 vision of this kind to discuss at length a matter of this nature, but 

 the strong resemblance in many ways to certain forms of the Pole- 

 moniaceae cannot be passed by without some comment. In this 

 connection it is well to remember that it was in this family, as a 

 Cantiia, that the original species was published. The 3-celled 



449 



