No.l.] GRAY AND HOOKER ON THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN FLORA. 29 



MENiSPERMACEiE. — Of three genera and as many species in the 

 Atlantic flora; are equally wanting westward. 



BERBERiDACEyi^.— This is a marked laniily in Xorth America. The 

 amphigii^an genus Berhens has genuine Atlantic and one (southern) 

 Rocky Mountain species ; the western mountains have a characteristic 

 and common low Mahonia (and another on the southern border); and 

 there are two or three more on the Pacific side. Of herbaceous types 

 the whole central region has none ; the Pacific coast has Vancouveria and 

 Achlys, peculiar genera of single' species ; the Atlantic has those four 

 special genera, Gaulophylliim, Diphylleia^ Jeffersonia^ and FodophyUum 

 pecuhar to it and to jSTortheastern Asia, of single species to each conti- 

 nent. 



i^TYMPHJEACE^. — Of the typical genera, Wyynphcva is represented only 

 in the Atlantic flora and by two peculiar species (with others in Florida 

 and Texas), and Niiphar by three species ; a peculiar iV^Mp/tar belongs to- 

 the two western floras. Nelumbium has only an Atlantic species, which 

 even reaches to the West Indies. Brasenia, that genus and single spe- 

 cies of wonderful distribution, is common on the eastern and not very 

 rare on the western coast. Cabomba is peculiarly Atlantic. 



Sarraceniace^. — This wholly American order of Pitcher-plants has 

 its leading genus of six species confined to the Atlantic border ; a single 

 curious representative, JDarlingtonia, on the mountains of California ; 

 the third genus is on a mountain in Guiana. 



Pap AVERAGES. — This small order, the typical genus of which is rep- 

 resented in America only by an arctic-alpine species, has its largest and 

 most remarkable generic diversification in Korth America, and in the 

 belt of country now under observation, partly on the Atlantic yet more 

 strikingly on the Pacific side. But, except for an Argemone which is 

 very conspicuous over the great plains, and the alpine Papaver, spar- 

 ingly met with on the highest peaks, the order is absent from the Eocky 

 Mountain flora in general. Xo European type is indigenous to Eastern 

 IsTorth America, and only one of the American is Japano-Asiatic, viz, 

 8tylo2)liorum, of course on the Atlantic side. The other Atlantic genus 

 is Sanguinaria, which has no fellow. But California has a species of the 

 Enropean genus Mcconopsis and the following endemic genera: Romneya 

 of Southern California, with a large poppy -like flower; Arctomecon, 

 poppy-like, except in its stigmas and the anomaly of persistent petals ; 

 Canbya, a curious little plant with the same anomaly (the last two really 

 belonging to the Arizonian border of the interior desert region, although 

 within California) ; Platystigma, including MeconeUa ; Platystemon, with 

 gynsecium singularly separating into its constituent carpels, so as to 

 simulate a Eanunculaceous plant ; Dendromecon., a shrub in an otherwise 

 herbaceous family; and JEschscholtzia, the only genus which extends 

 into the Great Basin, and the singular characters of which are faniilar 

 from the forms in common cultivation ; add Hioniemaitnia from tlie 

 jSTorthern Mexican plateau. IsText to the Sequoias, perhaps, these Papa- 

 veraceai form the most characteristic note of the Californian flora. 



