404 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [x. s., 23, 1921 



nated from one and the same stock, possibly through mutation, but 

 probably also complicated by more or less hybridization. Their dis 

 tribution in nature and under aboriginal cultivation reenforces this 

 assumption with strong arguments. The three varieties of Nicotiana 

 Bigelovii are found native in three separate portions of California, 

 N. multivalvis was cultivated by the Indians in Oregon, Idaho, and 

 Montana, while N. quad rival-vis was similarly cultivated in North 

 Dakota. The distribution of this group runs from southern Cali 

 fornia north through the entire state of California and well into 

 Oregon, possibly also entering the southeastern corner of the state 

 of Washington. From Oregon, it bends eastward up along the tribu 

 taries of the Columbia River, across Idaho and the continental divide, 

 and descends the Missouri River into Montana and North Dakota. 

 With these ideas as to the group and its distribution, the way is made 

 ready for a consideration of its various members. 



Torrey was the first to call attention to Nicotiana Bigelovii which 

 he named N. plumb aginifolia! var. Bigelovii. This was as early as 

 1857. In 1871, Watson raised the variety to a species and published 

 a more complete description, as well as a good figure of it. The 

 type specimens came from the Sierran foothills in central California 

 and are low spreading plants, with short internodes, ascending 

 branches, large and conspicuous white flowers, and prominent glandu 

 lar pubescence turning brownish, or rusty, with age. S. A. Barrett 

 lound it in the general type region in use among the Miwok Indians 

 and was kind enough to obtain seed for me. I have grown it in the 

 pure line for many years and find that it retains its distinctive varietal 

 characteristics from generation to generation. This plant, the taxo- 

 nomic type of Nicotiana Bigelovii, occupies an area in the very center 

 of California which is definitely limited and also separated from the 

 areas occupied by the other varieties of the species. 



The plant which has usually passed under the name of Nicotiana 

 Bigelovii, however, is the tall erect variety found in abundance in the 

 dry washes of stream-beds to the north of San Francisco Bay, from 

 Sonoma, Mendocino, and Humboldt Counties eastward to Shasta and 

 possibly also other counties of California. This variety, which as 

 yet has no distinctive name, may reach a height of as much as six 



