208 AN ACCOUNT OF THE GENUS ARGEMONE. 



impossible, and that it is necessary to recognise at least eight 

 distinct white-flowered Argemones which arrange themselves in 

 four definite groups, here treated as "species." The reasons for 

 this treatment are indicated in the key which follows, and are 

 more fully explained in the notes appended to each " species," 

 where, at the cost of a certain amount of unavoidable repetition, 

 the facts stated in the foregoing paragraphs are more fully 

 detailed. 



Medical qualities have been attributed to An/emo^ie in America 

 by the Mexicans, whose ideas have been accepted by the Spanish 

 residents of Mexico and South America. Their common belief in 

 its efficacy in the treatment of syphilis has passed, probably through 

 the Portuguese, into Eastern Africa ; it is noted by Taylor on 

 specimens at Kew, from Mombasa, that the natives there make use 

 of it in this ailment. The oil of Anjemone is said by Dymock to be 

 medicinal ; this oil has been examined by Wittstein and Mueller. 

 The Argemones begin to flower in Mexico in March ; in the Rocky 

 Mountains, Nevada, &c., not till September and October. The 

 following have been introduced into Europe as garden plants, their 

 showy flowers and their white-veined leaves rendering them ac- 

 ceptable : — A. mexicana (introd. 1592); A. alba (before 1783); 

 A. nchroleuca (before 1790* ; 1828) ; A. f/raudiflora (1827) ; A. 

 platyceras (1827) ; A. intermedia (1830* ; 1878*) ; A. rosea [Hmine- 

 mannii) (1833*); A. stenopetala (1885-).f 



The area in which the genus is indigenous includes Mexico, the 

 West Indies, and the Western and South-eastern United States. In 

 Mexico occur A. grandijlora, A. mexicana [ochroleuca), A. jdatijceras, A. 

 intermedia {^vera and stenopetala), and A.fruticosa. The first and last 

 mentioned are confined to Mexico; A. ochroleuca extends, probably 

 introduced, throughout the western and southern portions of S. 

 America, and is naturalised in Australia; A. platijceras extends 

 northward throughout California, Arizona, and Western Texas, 

 and is represented in the Great Basin and the Eoekies by A. hispkla, 

 in Chili by A. rosea, the latter being probably an introduced form 

 altered by its environment; A. intermedia extends through New 

 Mexico and Texas to the western prairies. A. mexicana (vera) is 

 indigenous in the West Indies, and has become naturalised in all 

 tropical and subtropical countries, except the Pacific American 

 coasts. A. alba (vera) is confined to the South-eastern United 

 States, but in the Sandwich Islands occurs a form A. glauca, which 

 is perhaps only an altered introduced condition of this species. 



Clavis specierum varietatumque Argemones. 



Fruticosa ; foliis ilicinis ; capsula fere ad basin 



usque soluta (petalis luteis) . . . . 1. A. fruticosa. 



Herbacefe; foliis cnicoideis; capsula triente 

 summo soluta : — 



t The * indicates that the cultivation of the form was not continued after 

 the date of introduction mentioned. 



