328 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE GENUS^ ARGEMONE. 



It is generally supposed that, this plant was not introduced to 

 Europe till raised by Mr. K. Barclay at Bury Hill in 1828, when it 

 was tirst described by Sweet. This is, however, a mistake, for 

 there is a specimen iu the herbarium of A. L. Jussieu whicli shows 

 that it was already in cultivation at Paris in the eigliteenth century. 

 Its culture did not, however, at that time spread, and it is only 

 since 1828 that it has become generally known. 



In the synonymy under A. mexicana I have omitted all refer- 

 ences by Australian writers,* except those of Mr. Bailey, whose 

 figure in Poison. PL of QueensUtnd, as well as specimens in Herb. 

 Calcutta collected by Scortechini, show that A. mexicana has at 

 length really found its way into Queensland. It is, however, 

 something of a reproach to Australian botanists that they have 

 never yet sent to Kew or the British Musseum any specimens of 

 Argemone from Australia : the only ones from this continent, 

 except the Calcutta ones that I have seen, are some in Herb. Paris, 

 collected in 1845 by M. Verreaux in N. S. Wales ; it is interesting 

 to find that the plant which he found, at that date, already estab- 

 lished in Australia is not A. mexicana at all, but the Chilian form 

 of A, ochroleuca ! 



That our national herbaria should have been thus neglected 

 need be no matter for surprise ; it is always the case that plants 

 which have become stigmatised as "common" are those of which 

 the material when one comes to examine it is at once too voluminous 

 and too inadequate. At Kew, the British Museum, and at Paris, 

 there are ten times as many specimens of Argemone mexicana as are 

 necessary for the morphological study of the species, but not nearly 

 enough for the study of its distribution. Thus neither Kew nor 

 the British Museum has a specimen from Australia, Ceylon, or the 

 Cape of Good Hope ; as regards Ceylon, the only examples I have 

 seen are at Paris, and were collected by Sonnerat ! ; as regards the 

 Cape, there are only two in Paris, one in the National Herbarium, 

 again collected by Sonnerat ! and one in Herb. Cosson, collected by 

 Prof. MacOwan. On the other hand, the French botanists have 

 never sent to Paris a specimen from Cochin-China ; its presence 

 there depends therefore entirely on Loureiro's assertion ; and, 

 although it is clear from a remark made by Sir William Hooker 

 that he has seen a Philippine specimen, tliere is no specimen from 

 that locality either in London or in Paris now, and our knowledge 

 of its existence there, except for Sir William's reference, depends 

 entirely on its citation by Blanco. It would be well if collectors 

 always kept in mind the fact that "the field" is not the place 

 wherein to decide that a species is, or is not, common ; it is their 

 duty to collect and to communicate examples of everything they see; 

 the responsibility of deciding whether particular specimens are or 

 are not required must be left to those who alone are in a position to 

 exercise it — the various directors or owners of great national and 

 private herbaria. 



* It is said by K. Muller to be present as an escape in S. Australia, and by 

 Woods to be an escape near Sydney ; it is not given in Baron von Mueller's 

 Census of Victoria plants. 



