ON DK. PRAIN'S account OF THE GENUS AEGEMONE. 95 



Leaves and stem hispid, petals rounded at the apex. Var. his- 

 pida (A. hispida Gray). 

 Buds oblong. Var Chilensis {A. rosea Hook.) 



Each species and variety is made clear by detailed and 

 carefully written descriptions. The bibliography is appall- 

 ing. The geographical distribution is completely outlined as 

 shown by the localities of the specimens examined. Some 

 idea of the painstaking exhaustive research is gained by 

 looking over these references, also a lively knowledge of 

 great confusion among the different forms of Argemone. 



Space does not permit a review of any species except those 

 in which western botanists are most interested. In the De- 

 cember number Dr. Prain discusses A. platyceras Link & 

 Otto, A. j)latyceras var. hispida Gray and A. intermedia 

 Sweet. A. intermedia Sweet appears to have remained con- 

 fused with A. platyceras L. & O. in all works on North 

 American Botany and yet it is the commonest Argemone of 

 the prairies of Colorado and Nebraska. Dr. Prain says that^ 

 when it has been found near the Mexican boundary it has 

 been named A. Mexicana L, but A. platyceras Link & Otto^ 

 when collected on the great plains. It was first described by 

 James in 1823 under the name of A. alba; but as that name 

 is preoccupied^ it has to take Sweet's name A. intermedia 

 (1830). Under the impression that it was A. platyceras 

 Link & Otto I called attention in Zoe. IV, 4, to the marked 

 differences between it and A. hispida Gray^ which inhabits 

 the same regions^ but is less common. 



The common Argemone of California, which I have 

 collected in Kern and San Benito counties, is similar to the 

 hispid Argemone of Colorado except, as Professor Greene 

 pointed out in Fl. Fran., p. 24, " for the short setose pubes- 

 cence under the armature." In the Herbarium of the Cali- 

 fornia Academy of Sciences there is a specimen from Kernville 

 collected by Mrs. Brandegee which shows hispidity and Dr. 

 Prain speaks of specimens in Durand's herbarium the most 

 important being a piece of the plant collected by Heerman^ 

 which is hispid. 



