312 D. Pram — Some additional Papaveracese. [No. 3, 



most obligingly pointed out to the writer, true Meconopses, the ripe capsules recently 

 received having valves that are only partially dehiscent. Still another possible 

 species is the plant described by M. Franchet as M. beionicse folia. It may well 

 be a Meconopsis but the fruit is not ripe and from its evident close affinity to two 

 Himalayan species that seem undoubtedly referable to Cathcartia this may also 

 prove to be better placed in that genus. From Hupeh the already mentioned M. 

 Oliveriana* is the only species as yet recorded ; like M. chelidonifolia it also occurs 

 in Szechuen. 



From what has been said it will be clear that the home of Meconopsis is the 

 conjoint Himalo-Tibetan and Tibeto-Chinese regions. But while this is the case 

 there are three species that do not occur within this area and that exhibit a distri- 

 bution which, even for outliers, is remarkable and peculiar. One species M. cam- 

 brica, that on which Viguier originally founded the genus, is confined to Western 

 Europe, where it extends from Portugal to Wales, Cumberland and Strath-Clyde, thus 

 overlying the western fringe of the Papaver area as M. aculeata overlies its east- 

 ern fringe. And strangely enough its nearest allies in the genns would seem to be 

 M. chelidonifolia and M. Oliveriana — precisely the species from which it is fur- 

 thest separated geographically. The two remaining species M. crassifolia and 

 M. heterophylla occur in Western America. These are altogether anomalous in 

 having valves which dehisce like those of Papaver by short subquadrato pores and 

 in having their stigmatic lobes discrete as in Chelidoniun or in Argemone. More dis- 

 concerting still is the fact that in the same area there occur two true Papavers, P. cali- 

 fur ni<- a in, and P. Lemmoni, the former with a perfectly normal disc, the latter with an 

 umbonute ono like Papaver etylatum, while all four species are so very nearly related 

 that it is only by an examination of their ripe capsules that they are to be definitely 

 separated. It is not therefore surprising that so careful an observer and so great 

 an authority on Calif ornian epeoies as Prof. E. Greene proposes to treat all four as 

 congeneric. Whether, as he proposes, all should be treated as Papa vers is a matter 



* Meconopsis Oliveriana Franchet .V' Prain MSS. in Herb. Paris, and in Herb. 

 Rew. Stems tall copiously branched, setulose below, glabrous above ; leaves numer- 

 ous, lower and middle shortly petioled sparingly strigose on both surfaces as are the 

 upper sessile somewhat amplexicaul, ovate-oblong pinnatipartite ; segments 1-2- 

 jngate petiolulate ovate pinnatifid, lobes rounded obtuse, terminal segment deeply 

 3-ficl : peduncles numerous slender and sepals glabrous ; flowers solitary at the end 

 of stem and of the many axillary always leafy branches; capsule long cylindric 

 4-5-valved, glabrous ; placentas nerviform. 



China: Szechuen, Tchen-keou-tiii, Farges n, 390! Hupeh; Henry n. 6863 ! 



Stems erect 2-3 ft. high, as thick as a swan's quill at base, flowers 8—12 ter- 

 minal ; buds globose; style very short and thick; capsule including style 1^ in. 

 long, Jin. across ; rootstoek villous. 



This species so closely resembles in all its vegetative characters M. chelidoni- 

 folia Franchet, that at first it is hard to believe that they can be distinct. The fruit 

 is however totally different; in M. chelidonifolia the capsule is short, ovate, fin. long, 

 and J in. across, the style is distinct and slender and the placentas are deeply intruded 

 as they are in the true Poppies. Another difference is in the colour of the petals 

 which seem, judging from dried specimens in Herb. Paris, to be purplish ; certainly 

 they are not bright yellow us iu M. chelidonifolia. Both species mach resemble 

 Cathcartia villosa. 



