93 



ON De. d. pkain's account of the genus 



AEGEMONE. 



By Alice Eastwood. 



In tlie December number of the Journal of Botany Dr. 

 Prain concludes his work on the Genus Argemone which was 

 begun in the May number and continued through June, July, 

 October and November. 



In the first part he explains, that his paper embodies the 

 results of an examination of the herbaria of London, Paris 

 and Geneva and is to be considered an account of the speci- 

 mens of Argemone in the herbaria examined, rather than a 

 final review of the genus. This tentative revision he offers,, 

 more in the hope that its perusal may induce American bot- 

 anists, who alone are in the position to undertake the 

 necessary field^study, to prepare the much needed authorita- 

 tive revision that is called for, than in the belief that his 

 conclusions are justifiable. While he finds it impossible to 

 pronounce a final opinion on the systematic rank of any of the 

 different forms, which he defines, save one {A. fruticosa), it 

 has been found possible, with the assistance of the European 

 material, to assign authoritatively to all but one of them {A. 

 corymbosa Greene) their primary bibliographic references. 



With his broad knowledge of the Papaveraceae, Dr. Prain 

 discusses the generic characters of Argemone and its relation- 

 ship to allied genera and shows, that the generic distinctions 

 between Argemone and Romneya, between Eomneya and 

 Arctomecon are of the slightest. 



In Argemone there are eleven species easily distinguish- 

 able, these being as follows: A. mexicana L., alba Lestib., 

 grandiflora Sweet, intermedia Sweet, platyceras Link & 

 Otto, fruticosa Thurb., ochroleuca Sweet, glauca Nutt., rosea 

 Hook., hispida Gray, stenopetala Prain. Of these Dr. Prain 

 allows specific rank to six, assigning to the remaining Arge- 

 mones a varietal position^ since the eleven species cited are 

 of such unequal value. We thus are given six groups of 

 Erxthea, Vol. IV., No. 6 [1 June, 1896]. 



