135 



m 



setae. Witliin eacli of tlie sections it is still desirable to recog- 

 nise a number of groups of closely allied species. In Eumeco- 

 nopsis these groups are: — 1, Anomalae, which, stand alone in the 

 genus in having distinctly ocellate and slightly zygomorphic 

 flowers, and in being iinnual plants; 2yCaiiihricae^ perennial with 

 glabrous leaves, yellow or orange flowers and branching steins; 3, 

 Cumminsm^ perennials with hirsute leaves and blue or purple 

 flowers; 4, Decorae, a new group, with aculeate basal leaves, but 



stem 



mul 



or i^eduncles and with all parts beset with pungent prickles; 6, 

 Primulinae, with usually entire or sub-entire glabrous, hirsute or 

 setose leaves, and flowers in racemose cymes or on simple scitpes, 

 but when on simple scapes with 7-8 petals; T, Bellae, with dis- 

 sected, lobulate or very rarely entire leaves and with flowers 

 always on simple scapes and always 4-petalous or casually 5-peta- 

 lous." In all the members of the section Eumeconopsis the stigma 

 is capitate or clavate with decurrent subcontiguous rays. In the 

 section Polychaetia there are but four groups: — 8, Grandes, with 

 scapose stems or with solitary flowers on simple scapes and with a 

 depressed stigma with stellately divaricate rays; 9, Torquutae, 

 with scapose stems and a well-developed disk on the top of the 



ca 



stem 



evolution''; this crown does not die away during the winter; and 

 11, Chelidonifoliae, with slender branching stems, lobed leaves 



and perennial rootstocks. 



These groups proposed in 1906 as aggregates of nearly allied 

 forms, with the object of facilitating the recognition by the field- 

 botanist and the cultivator of plants with which they might have 

 occHKion to deal, have been advanced m the Pflajizenretch to 

 the rank of sections, while the sections of 1906 hav^ m turn been 

 treated as sub-jrenera. When treated as sections, the groups aro 



icism 



does not always appear to be a natural one. In the Pfianzenrezck 

 exception is taken more especially to the segregation of tHe 

 Ar.,£nina -frnm the PtimuUnae. If this criticism be just it applies 



with even greater force to the segregation of the Primuhnae from 

 the Bellae. It has, however, to be borne m mmd that, as 

 originallv proposed, the groups represent aggregates, not segre- 

 gates, and as there is reason to_ believe that they have to some 

 extent served the purpose for which they were intended, their use 

 is continued here as aggregates, not as sections. 



The experience of the past twenty years indicates that, m 

 twentv-two per cent, of (he species the petals are yellow with 

 variation in shade on the one hand to ivoiy- white and on the 

 other to orange; or, in seventy-eight per cent of the species,^ are 

 blue, with variation in shade on the one hand to indigo or vio e 



and on the other to purple or red. ^^ .*\^7ell«^J-fl«^^^,^.l f,^^^^ 

 the range of variation Is, as a rule, slight withm the limits of 

 individital species; in the blue-flowered series the range of .ar a 

 tion within specific limits is often considerable, and it is'noticeable 



