WEST AMERICAN ASPERIFOLLE. 109 
taking the Prodromus as a starting point in the history of 
these things would go astray. 
A second conjecture might be this: that there was some 
uncertainty about the generical identity of the South 
American plants upon which Cryptanthe was founded, and 
the North American Krynitzkia leiocarpa. Fischer and 
Meyer, who founded the latter, were not ignorant of the 
former, but thought them generically distinct. The present 
writer has reason to think that the best herbaria in Eastern 
North America are but poorly supplied with Chilian plants ; 
and we of the Pacific Coast enjoy peculiar facilities for inter- 
change with Chili and Peru. Good native Chiliau speci- 
mens of the plants on which Cryptanthe was established, 
authentically named by the venerable Alphonse De Candolle, 
he who reduced the genus to Eritrichium aforetime, we have 
access to; and these are our warrant for the conclusion that 
our many North American annuals lately named as species of 
Krynitzkia are, with the exception of those placed under 
Allocarya, Eremocarya and Piptocalyx, of the same genus 
with Oryptanthe. 
It is, thirdly, not impossible that Dr. Gray, who is not un- 
wavering in his adherence to principles of priority, may have 
recognized both the name Cryptanthe and the identity of the 
genus with Krynitzkia, and yet have thought best, for reasons 
of his own, to retain the nine years later name, and keep 
Silence regarding the earlier but more obscure one. If this 
last conjecture be the true explanation, he will admit the 
present paper to have the force of a strong argument for 
strict priority in generic names at least; for had he, in the 
first place, as was his privilege, if not his duty, named 
our long list of species as species of Cryptanthe, no room 
would have been left for that which follows hereupon in 
augmentation of the Borragineous bibliography. 
