COTYLEDON NEVADENSIS. NEVADA COTYLEDON. Ill 



Mr. Echeveria, an " eminent botanical artist of Mexico." In these 

 days, however, when the natural affinities of plants are of more 

 consequence than an artificial line drawn through a slight adhesion 

 of the petals, the species are properly remanded back to Cotyle- 

 don, and Signor Echeveri must lose the honor intended for him. 

 Such misfortunes often happen in botany, and it is chiefly in this 

 way that so many synonyms accumulate. Wherever it is pos- 

 sible, botanists who have a dread of synonyms, retain as much 

 of the original name as possible. For instance, in the present 

 case they might call the plant Cotyledon lanccolata, retaining 

 Nuttall's specific name. This plan has the addidonal value of 

 aiding history, as well as of avoiding synonyms. But here there 

 happened to be already an old-world species named Cotyledon 

 lanceolata; so that on the abrogation of EcJievcr'ia, a wholly new 

 name had to be given to it — Cotyledon Nevadensis, by Mr. Wat- 

 son; and there is nothing left, so far as the name is concerned, to 

 show that Mr. Nuttall had anything to do with its original his- 

 tory. Though reported from San Diego as Echeveria lanceolata, 

 it is probably rare there, as well as in California generally, for 

 only a single species. Cotyledon farinosa, is included in the re- 

 cendy issued "Popular Flora of California," by Volney Rattan. 



Cotyledon is a very ancient name, and signifies a wide shallow 

 cup or vessel. As applied to a plant, it appears in the writings 

 of Pliny, the old Roman writer on natural history; and a well- 

 known European plant. Cotyledon nmbilicus, is believed to be the 

 species he had reference to. The leaves have at the apex a 

 small shield-like process, at once suggestive of both its generic 

 and specific names, which, in a certain sense, are synonymous. 

 Sibthorp notes that the plant is to this day called Kotyleda by 

 the Greeks of Laconia, the plant being native to that part of the 

 world. The home of the genus is, however, Southern Africa, in 

 which some three dozen species are found. The secdons with 

 partially united petals have their home chiefly in Brazil and Mex- 

 ico, there being, perhaps, a couple of dozen or less, if the limits 

 of the species were accurately determined. Seven species are 



