19131  Fernald,— Some Noteworthy Varieties of Bidens 77 
In 1858, J. Q. A. Fritchey sent to Dr. Gray from the neighborhood 
of St. Louis a plant which in all outward characteristics was Bidens 
(at that time considered a Coreopsis) aristosa (Michx.) Britton, but 
differing from typical Coreopsis aristosa, which has the awns upwardly 
barbellate, in having retrorsely barbed awns. Dr. Gray was natur- 
ally interested in the anomalous plant and requested more informa- 
tion and material. This was sent by Mr. Fritchey on September 12, 
1859, his letter saying: “Today I again examined the flower pro- 
nounced by you Coreopsis aristosa and which I had called a Bidens 
from the awns being barbed downwards. The awns of all achenia that 
I examined were barbed downwards, none were even spreading. ‘The 
flowers which I examined grew in the same location that those grew 
in which I pressed last year and sent you. ... In this neighbor- 
hood the plant is very abundant along the North Missouri Railroad 
between this [Bridgeton] and St. Louis, frequently for a mile in length 
and a rod in width. This plant grows so thick that at a short dis- 
tance even it appears like solid gold." There are three sheets of the 
Fritchey material preserved in the Gray Herbarium and upon them 
Dr. Gray marked “C. aristosa in Bidentem transformata (C. aristosa 
turned to a Bidens)!!" and in a discussion of Coreopsis, published in 
1862, he said: “Coreopsis and Bidens are separated by a single, arti- 
ficial, and not wholly constant character. The group of species on 
which Nuttall grounded his genus Diodonta wholly accords with the 
Platycarpea section of Bidens, except that the awns or teeth are 
antrorsely hispid or naked. Recently we have received, from Mr. 
Fritchey of Missouri, specimens of C. aristosa, Michx., or perhaps of 
a wild cross between that species and some Bidens, with retrorsely 
hispid awns.”! And in the Synoptical Flora Dr. Gray treated the 
plant as a hybrid of Coreopsis aristosa “with Bidens frondosa or others.” 
Subsequently, however, a considerable amount of material has 
accumulated, which shows that this variety of Bidens aristosa with 
retrorsely barbed awns is widely distributed, collections coming in 
from several different sections of Illinois and Missouri. The imme- 
diate stimulus which has led the writer to study the plant was the 
receipt through Mr. John H. Lovell of material sent to him from 
Illinois for determination with the statement that it is found “in the 
swamps of Illinois and along the Mississippi River” and is highly 
esteemed-by bee-keepers on account of its great yield of honey. A 
close study of the seven collections at hand fails to indicate that the 
1 Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. v. 125, 126 (1862). 
