BALL'S FLORA OF THE PERUVIAN ANDES. 389 



Erodium cicutarium. — Although Mr. Ball notes the wide 

 diffusion of this Old World species in South America, and 

 that it attends the distribution of cattle, he seems at a loss to 

 account for its presence in the Peruvian Andes at the height 

 of 12,500 feet. He supposes that it has not shown the same 

 readiness to establish itself in North America. This is true 

 of the Atlantic but not of the Pacific side. In California and 

 the adjacent districts the Alfilaria, as it is popularly called, 

 has taken such full possession that we can hardly convince 

 even the botanists that it is an introduced plant. The 

 authors of the " Botany of California " speak of it as " more 

 decidedly and widely at home throughout the interior than 

 any other introduced plant, and, according to much testi- 

 mony, it was as common throughout California early in the 

 present century as now. ... It is a valuable and nutritious 

 forage plant, reputed to impart an excellent flavor to milk 

 and butter." At Santa Barbara and other parts of southern 

 California it is used for lawns around dwellings, and it 

 seems to be the only resort. It makes a passable substitute 

 for grass so long as the rainy season lasts or irrigation is 

 kept up. It must have been brought in with the earliest 

 cattle, and have found on the Pacific coast a perfectly suit- 

 able climate. 



Caldasia of Lagasca, Mr. Ball shows us, must be restored 

 as the name of the genus named Oreomyrrhis by Endlicher. 



Relbunium, upon a general survey of the species, will in 

 our opinion be found quite untenable as a genus. 



Phacelia circinata, which extends almost from one end to 

 the other of the American continent, is said to be singularly 

 constant, exhibiting no marked varieties. But we have in 

 North America a remarkable diversity of forms, the ex- 

 tremes of which, by themselves, no botanist would refer to 

 one species, although intermediate forms inextricably com- 

 bine them. 



