SOME NEW SPECIES OF PACIFIC COAST RIBES, 



BY ALICE EASTWOOD. 



Curator of the Depart?nent of Botany. 



Plates XXIII and XXIV. 



The genus Ribes is represented on the Pacific Coast by- 

 four subgenera, which include an indefinite number of 

 species and forms. 



A recent attempt on the part of the author to identify the 

 unnamed specimens of this genus, which had for years been 

 accumulating in the Herbarium of the California Academy 

 of Sciences, has brought to light the following species 

 which seem to be undescribed. 



The first six belong to the suborder Ribesia; of these, 

 numbers one and two fall into the group typified by Ribes 

 sanguineum Pursh, number three into that typified by R. 

 malvaceum Smith ; numbers four, five and six into that typi- 

 fied by R. nevadense Kellogg. The last three belong to 

 the suborder Grossularia. 



Some botanists might include the first six under Ribes 

 sanguineum, the last three under R. menziesii. This aggre- 

 gation may satisfy the amateur to whom generic differences 

 are sufficient, but the real student desiring to learn the truth 

 regarding a genus will find it a source of great confusion, 

 and altogether unsatisfactory. 



While it is to be kept in mind that nature knows no 

 boundaries, and that orders, genera, and species are divi- 

 sions made by man for his own convenience, yet these 

 methods of classification have a scientific value beyond that 

 of pure utilitarianism, and ought to show as far as possible 

 the life-history of a group of related plants and of the entire 

 plant world, when the knowledge of man makes it possible. 



[ 241 ] April 14, 1902. 



