ST8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



h. Annuals or biennials, all but one introduced from the Old World. 



1. Akenes smooth and even, or at length sprinkled with some scat- 

 tered papillae, especially toward the margin : flowers moderately 

 large and showy. 



R. PARVULUS, L. Certainly this was not a happy name since, like 

 all such annuals, it may vary from depauperate to robust. One per- 

 haps might follow the majority of authors in superseding it, if they 

 had at all agreed as to what name they would adopt in its place. 

 The oldest after the Linna^an is R. Sardous, Crantz ; next is i?. 

 hirsutus, Curtis ; then E. PMlonotis, Retz ; and the oldest name 

 after the Linnsean is the one least used. The species is very spar- 

 ingly naturalized in N. America, in the vicinity of some Atlantic 

 seaports. 



2. Akenes papillose-scabrous, and hispidulous with hooked hairs : 



flowers very small : indigenous to the Pacific coast. 



R. HEBECARPUS, Hook. & Am. Indigenous analogue of H. parvi- 

 jiorus. 



3. Akenes muricate or echinate : sparingly naturalized. 



R. PARViFLORUS, L. Very small-flowered : akenes rough-papillose. 



R. MURiCATUS, L. Large-flowered, broad-leaved : akenes strong- 

 beaked, tuberculate or echinate. 



R. ARVENSis, L., has eflfected a precarious lodgment only in some 

 ballast grounds : it has narrow-lobed leaves and strongly echinate 

 akenes. 



2. Serfum Chlhualmense. 



Next in interest to onr own botany is that of the northern part of 

 Mexico adjacent to the United States, and especially that of the ele- 

 vated interior region. Two collections have been made (for the most 

 part in sufficient numbers for distribution) during the past year, in 

 the Mexican State of Chihuahua ; one by Mr. C. G. Priugle, along 

 the line of the Mexican Central Railway, in the spring and in the 

 autumn of 1885 ; the other by Dr. Edward Palmer, from August to 

 November of the same year, in the Sierra Madre of the southwestern 

 part of that State, with headquarters at the mining settlement of Bato- 

 pilas, in some maps pi-inted Batopolas. Both are collectors of experi- 

 ence in adjacent regions, particularly in Arizona, whence Mr. Pringle 

 had in former years penetrated into Sonora, very beneficially for bot- 

 any, but to the dama2;e of his own health ; Dr. Palmer had made two 



