No. 379.] REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERA TURE. 529 
Cayenne, Chilli, Tabasco, etc.) was begun many years ago by Dr. 
E. Lewis Sturtevant, of Framingham, Mass; but owing to ill- 
health he was obliged to relinquish the work. Accordingly, with 
the gift of his noble collection of prelinnaean herbals, he sent to the 
Missouri Botanical Garden in 1892 his notes upon and specimens 
of the genus Capsicum. ‘The task of shaping these materials into a 
final monograph has been a difficult one, and through some changes 
in the corps of herbarium assistants its completion has met with 
much delay 
The extreme variability in the forms of Capsicum led even in 
prelinnæan times to the characterization of a great number of 
species, and during the last century and a half more than 150 
species and botanical varieties have been described and named, to 
say nothing of numerous lesser variations designated as horticultural 
forms. However, Mr. Irish is wisely conservative in his botanical 
treatment, recognizing but two species, C. annuum and C. frutescens. 
Of these the former exhibits much the greater variability and in the 
present treatment is divided into some twelve botanical and fifty- 
five horticultural varieties, many of which are figured. The exten- 
sive bibliography and the complex synonymy of these forms are 
cited with great fullness and detail. HLE 
Sur le genre Simmondsie.! — The shrubby monotype Simmondsia 
californica Nutt. has long been placed among the Buxaceæ. It in- 
habits arid regions in Southern and Lower California, and by the 
Spaniards is called jojoba. Economically it is notable for its large 
embryos, which, when removed from the seed-coats, are edible and 
nutritious in the manner of almonds. Without recognizing its 
identity with Nuttall’s Simmondsia, Dr. A. Kellogg once described 
the plant as a Galphimia, but this was a mere guess at its affinity. 
Other botanists, who have dealt with its classification, have until 
now agreed in referring it to the box tribe of the Euphorbiacez or 
to the Buxacez, if that group is separated as an independent family. 
However, on the basis of morphological and anatomical investiga- 
tions Professor Van Tieghem now expresses the belief that its 
affinities are rather to be found among the Chenopodiales, and 
furthermore that it is best regarded as the type of a distinct family, 
the Simmondsiacex, to be placed next the Tetragoniacez. The 
chief reasons assigned for the separation of Simmondsia from the 
Buxacex are the peculiar structure of the stem (in which successive 
1 Van Tieghem, Ph. Journal de Botanique, vol. xii, pp. 103-112. 
