AN ACCOUNT OF THE GENUS AROEMONE. 181 



name. An examination of Hernandez's figure shows, however, 

 that it is not A. mexicana which he attempts to delineate ; a study 

 of Mexican specimens shows that, except from one or two places 

 close to seaports on the eastern coast, where it is only an intro- 

 duced, and probably a recently introduced, plant, A. mexicana does 

 not occur in Mexico at all. At the same time Hernandez points 

 out that the name Chicalotl includes white-flowered forms for 

 which the Spanish American name at present is Cardo bianco, the 

 other epithet being restricted to yellow-flowered ones. The common 

 English name for the plant now, alike in the West and the East 

 Indies, as well as throughout the United States, is the "Prickly 

 Poppy" or the "Mexican Poppy"; these terms are, however, 

 applied to most of the Argemoues, and are not any longer restricted 

 to A. mexicana. 



In the light of the material of the natural order Fapaveracea re- 

 ported during the seventeenth century, Tournefortwas amplyjustified 

 in separating Bauhin's P. spinosiim from Papaver ; as he was at the 

 same time relegating to Papaver all the species known to earlier 

 authors as Argemone, he did well to utilize this classical name in 

 designating his newly defined genus. It must, however, be re- 

 collected that in so doing he altered completely the incidence of the 

 name, and that the etymology of the word, which referred to a 

 supposed efficiency of the juice of the classical Anjemone iu the 

 treatment of cases of cataract, bears no relationship to any attribute, 

 real or imputed, of the genus as now understood. 



The original Art/emone of classical and post-classical writers 

 included apparently the plants known now as Papaver Anieinnne and 

 P. hijbridum, two species of Papaver § Rhceades. According to 

 C. Bauhin, however, who may be quoted as one of the ablest 

 taxonomists the science of Botany has ever known, this genus 

 included two forms now referred to Papaver § Hcapijiora, viz., 

 P. nudicaule (alpinum) and P. nudicaxde (^pijrenaicnm).'^' To these 

 four Morison added later another Papaver § Rhmules, — the plant 

 now known as P. duhium.\ All five owe their true localisation iu 

 Papaver to Tournefort, whose simple and natural arrangement was 

 at Linuseus's disposal when half a century later he issued the 

 Species Plantarum. Linnaeus, however, was unable to accept either 

 Bauhin's or Tournefort's conclusions ; the two prickly-capsuled 

 Rlmades — the classical Argemone — he referred, with Tournefort, to 

 Papaver ; he did the same with Morison's Argemone — indeed it was 

 only as an afterthought that he separated it specifically from 

 P. Rhceas. So far all is clear ; it is his further treatment that is 

 disconcerting. Of the two § Scapijiora Papavers, which most 

 authors now admit to be conspecific, he, following Tournefort, 

 placed one in Papaver, and, following Bauhin, placed the other in 

 Argemone. Linnaeus still further complicated matters by adding to 

 Argemone a third species unknown to Bauhin or Morison, which 

 was first discovered and described by Tournefort.]: This plant — 



* C. Bauhin, Pinax, 171, 172 (1623). 



t Morison, Hist. Univ. i. 279, § iii. t. 14, f. 11 (1G80). 



I Tournefort, Corollar. 17 (1703). k 2 



