VOL. I. ] Feecent Literature. 301 
The plants grew in abundance about late-dried depressions in the 
clay, in company with Bergia Texana, Cypselea humifusa, Lua- 
wigta palustris, Ammannia latifolia, Marsilia vestita, etc.—none 
were seen near the river. As this locality at least is entirely sub- 
‘merged during the June freshets caused by the melting snows of the 
Sierras, Biolettia riparia probably begins to bloom early in July, 
continuing to November, ‘or even December, its habit of rooting at 
the joints making a kind of continuous growth.. 
It is greatly to be regretted that Dr. Gray with that high-handed 
disregard of subsequent names, of which he was often guilty, should 
have ignored ‘‘ Biolettia”’ nearly forty years ago, and called the 
plant 7richocoronis Wrightit, perhaps also 7: Greggti, as inter- 
mediates between these not very distant species have been collected, 
but if Dr. Gray had spared the genus it would not have escaped 
the snare of Buckley’s ‘‘ Margacola.’’* Perhaps according to Prof. 
Greene’s theories concerning the precedence of subgenera and sub- 
species over later genera and species, even Dr. Gray’s earliest 
name ‘‘ Micrageratum” + might have sufficed for the undoing of 
‘‘Biolettia,’’ and besides this Bentham and Hooker imply that 
Trichocoronis is too near Alomia, and Baillon places it along with 
Alomia and several others in Adenostemma. 
Prof. Greene’s ‘‘Biolettia” may however escape the fate 
which his views about “once a synonym always a synonvm”’ 
would apparently necessitate. It is possible for further research in | 
a line for which the author is becoming famous to show that Ra- 
finesque may have used these various names for other plants, and 
recorded them perhaps on the fly leaf of some rural maiden’s auto- 
~ graph album—in which case, of course, their ‘‘ tenure would be 
rendered too precarious” and ‘* Biolettia’’ would be in order. 
The place given to this little plant in classification is another il- 
lustration of how ‘‘ great minds disagree.’’ Prof. Greene gets on 
three sides of the fence at once in his description—he says: ‘‘ This 
remarkable plant wearing decidedly the aspect of a small Zrizgeron 
_ [Asteroideze], but with fruit characters of the Helenioidee * * sug- 
gests at once Eclipf/a and Spilanthes [Helianthoidez.]’’ Buckley 
appears to have been similarly troubled, but then Buckley’s bo- 
“Proc. Philad. Acad., 1861, 457. 
tProc. Am. Acad., i, 46 (1846). 
