367 
Meconopsis and Cathcartia. 
M. integrifolia and M. punicea in the group Grandes — where the depressed 
radiant stigma is situated, as in Cathcartia villosa, immediately on the 
vertex of the capsule. The introduction into Cathcartia of stylate species, 
if their valves do separate to the base, is no greater violation of its natural 
limits than is the retention in Meconopsis of the three non-stylate species 
mentioned. 
The indumentum of Cathcartia villosa consists of barbellate hairs like 
those in the species of Meconopsis § Polychaetia ; the hairs on the three 
stylate species are, on the other hand, simple, as in Meconopsis §Eumeconopsis. 
This character, in Meconopsis , appears to be of more consequence, from the 
taxonomic point of view, than the presence or absence of a style ; it may be 
accepted as of equal importance in Cathcartia . Small as are the two groups 
which this character gives us, it seems therefore advisable to treat them as 
distinct sections. It has, indeed, to be pointed out that the only species 
of the three stylate Cathcartias with simple hairs of which we know the ripe 
fruit was considered by Sir G. King to deserve generic rank. 
In habit the species of Cathcartia show considerable uniformity. All 
of them fall into the first of the three habit-series distinguishable within 
Meconopsis ; they have slender non-scapose leafy stems with perennial 
rootstocks and few-flowered cymes, or even solitary flowers, terminating these 
leafy stems. 
The distribution of the various species is as local as in the case of 
Meconopsis; C. villosa is known only from Sikkim and East Nepal; 
C. lyrata only from Sikkim ; C. polygonoides only from Chumbi ; and 
C. betonicifolia only from Yunnan. 
All four species are truly alpine ; none of them occur below 10,000 feet 
or go beyond 14,000 feet above sea-level ; all are confined to the zone 
between 25° and 30° lat. N. As regards every feature of their distribution, 
therefore, the species of Cathcartia are in accord with the majority of the 
species of Meconopsis. The only one so far known in cultivation is C. 
villosa. 
Cathcartia, Hook. f. 
Bot. Mag., t. 4596 (1851) ; Benth. & Hook, f., Gen. PL, i. 52 (1862) ; 
Baill, Hist, des Plantes, iii. 140 (1872); Prantl & Kundig, Nat. 
Pflanzenfam., iii. 2. 141 (1889). 
Sepala 2. Petala 4. Stamina 00. Ovarii placentae 3-6 nerviformes 
vel plus min us ve intrusae ; stylus distinctus vel obsoletus ; stigmatis clavati 
vel depresso-dilatati lobi decurrentes subcontigui vel radiantes divaricati 
placentis oppositi. Capsula oblonga vel anguste cylindracea vertice in 
stylum sensim vel sub stigmate subsessili abruptius attenuata, valvis ab 
apice ad basin usque placentas cum stigmate styloque persistentes nudantibus 
dchiscens. — Semina scrobiculata vel laevia raphe cristata vel nuda, — Herbae 
