99 



certain genera to which the writer has ^iven 

 : amount of field work that the authors have, 

 le chief is Cymopterus. This genus is a good 

 the whole Brittonian system, and of the un- 

 scientific results which follow its dismemberment: Mr. Rose 

 claims that if it is kept up orf the lines of Watson and Gray 

 it will not hold together because of the variant groups of which 

 it is composed and so to avoid this evil he splits it up into 

 seven genera, none of which will hold together even as well, 

 and therefore he increases ihe difficulty sev^n-fold, and if he 

 were consistent he should have split it into six more genera 

 which would have augmented the trouble thirteen-fold. The 

 genera created are Oreoxis which is not separable from Pseu- 

 t'ocyinopterus : riielloptcrus, which is not separable from Cym- 



Aulospernmni can be again separated into two genera just as 

 good as itself, the one \o include longipes, glaucus. W'atsoni, 



proper as he recognizes it is divisible into three equally good 

 genera, one to include acaulis, Parryi, Leibergi; another 

 globosus: and the third megacephalus. Fendleri and its var. 

 Newberryi ( Peucedanum Xewberrvi Watson Am. Nat. 7.301). 

 This last is the best genus in the whole batch created by Coul- 

 ter & Rose and was called Coloptera. but after the writer's 



into Cymopterus. They liave also followed me in keeping 

 Cymopterus lapidosus in this genus. Other genera created 

 from Cymopterus are Rhysopterus which has nothing what- 

 ever to keep it distinct from Cvmopterus proper, Aulosper- 

 mum. or Phellopterus. An unwise action is the creation of 

 Rhysopterus Jonesii from immature material. The waiter hr^.s 

 had for tw^entv vears five times as much material of this form 

 as the authors have seen but he never dared to name it. Pseu- 

 docymopterus is another fictitious genus which might just 

 ?s well be split into nearly as many genera as it has species. 



Peucedanum has been properly thrown over and an old 

 a'yl untenable Rafinesquian geinis resurrected in its place, 

 with the resultant renaming of the whole batch of species. 

 Thev, however, split oflf Eurvptera and Cvnomarathrum. and - 



iud the other the i 



