64 



complete descriptions. The flower affords excellent characters 

 upon which to base a key, but the flower is poorly described in 

 some species, and of several of these good material has not been 

 available. 



In Proc. Cal. Acad. III. Bot, 2: 241-254, under the caption 

 "Some new Species of Pacific Coast Ribes," Miss Eastwood has 

 published one of the most valuable contributions to our knowl- 

 edge of the genus. Her descriptions are uniform, so that an}'^ 

 particular organ in one species can be readily compared with 

 the same organ in another species. She also uses the metric 

 system, which is certainly to be preferred when small, as well as 

 accurate measurements are concerned. Ths term "line" as ap- 

 plied to measurements is quite worthless. Theoretically it is 

 one-twelfth of an inch, but in practice it seems to be without 

 any fixed limit, and is on a par with "large" or "small," when 

 the latter terms are unaccompanied by definite measurements. 



Miss Eastwood lists 55 species as occuring on the Pacific 

 Coast, including Lower California, but three of these should be 

 stricken out. i?. gracile is confined to the Atlantic side, to the 

 Appalachian system only, the plant Avhich has passed under 

 that name on the Pacific side being R. niveu^n. R. 7yiontigenu7n 

 is said to be identical with R. lentmn; and R. leptantkum^ a 

 species of the southern Rocky mountain region, hardly reaches 

 California. Two other species are listed by her as possibly oc- 

 curring in this region — R. Roezli and R. Spaethianu^n. I too 

 am not acquainted vvdth the place of origin of the former, but 

 R. Spaethiauum was described from Colorado material, and is 

 one of the R. cereum forms. 



Of the nine Pacific coast species not occurring in Califor- 

 nia, five are currants with rotate or saucer-shaped calyx, while 

 four belong to the smooth fruited section of gooseberries. The 

 following are the nine: 



Currants Goosebei^ries 



prostratum niveum 



Hudsonianum • coQ-natum 



