ON THE NOMENCLATURE OF GAGEA. 211 
of this. These fogs are frequent on the Chilian coast from 31° 30’ 
8. lat. to the north, but only to a certain height, where ies allow a 
luxuriant flora in some parts; and on the south of the Limari 
there exists a mountain, called Talinai, which is nearly as high as 
ai Jorge, and equally covered with wood ; but the wood is not so 
extensive, consisting, as I have been told, of the same species as 
wap aes = orge. 
may it be ve peer oe these ee appear here so 
far fon hair true hom Hay seeds perhaps been brought 
nor is there a single one which is eaten b d if this last 
case could have happened, it is not probable that birds would be 
able to carry ake for so long a distance in their intestines; they 
would have ejected them with their excrements long before they 
had passed half the distan 
Or, has the climate of “Chile in other times been pitas ea 
what it is now? Have there been frequent rains and fogs, accom- 
panied by a cloudy sky, which allowed the coast-range to be yer d 
with woods, which by a change of the climate have died away, 
remaining only the forests of Frai Jorge and Talinai as witnesses 
of the sik luxuriant flora? Or are there forests of very ancient 
origin, remnants of that time, in which only the actual coast-range 
emerged out of the sea, forming long rows of islands with maritime 
and insular climate, which was similar to the actual climate of 
Chiloé and the islands of Western Patagonia? and has os a ines 
of the high Cordillera changed the climate to what it is n 
these questions came to my mind when I was uate for an 
explanation of the origin of the forest of Frai Jorge, and I found 
no definite answer to any one of them; the most probable seems to 
me that the climate of Northern Chile has been quite a different 
one in former times. But, then, why does there not exist any 
trace of a former abundant and forest vegetation south of Talinai ? 
I never heard of other forests in these regions, except the ones 
above mentioned. 
ON THE apa ag OF GAGEA. 
y James Britten, F.L.S. 
e prahesrg NOE to oe paper in which Salisbury established the 
genus Gagea (‘Annals of Botany,’ ii. 83) in 1806 brought to m 
fein the fact that our British peioactibativs of the genus, usually 
known as G. lutea Ker, should, in cordance with the law of 
Priority, bear the name of G. eile ., Ker’s name datin, 
1809 (Bot. Mag. t. 1200), while Salisbury’s is three years earlier. 
