78 Rhodora [APRIL 
plant has any admixture of B. frondosa, for except in the barbing of 
the awns it exactly simulates true B. aristosa; but so attractive is the 
suggestion of hybridity as an explanation of anomalous plants that 
one of the collections from the Mississippi Valley was labeled by its 
collector “Coreopsis bidentoides Nutt. X Bidens frondosa L.,” a re- 
markable combination to find in Illinois and Missouri since Coreopsis 
(or Bidens) bidentoides is known only from the lower Delaware River! 
The status of the plant will be better indicated if we call it 
BIDENS ARISTOSA (Michx.) Britton, var. Fritcheyi, n. var., formae 
typicae habitu foliis achaeniis etc. simile; aristis retrorse barbatis. 
— Like the typical form in habit, leaves, achenes, etc.: awns re- 
trorsely barbed.— Wet prairies and swamps of Illinois and Missouri. 
ILLINOIS: received through J. H. Lovell; Athens, September, 1868, 
E. Hall; Champaign, September 29, 1898, H. A. Gleason. MISSOURI: 
St. Louis County, September 21, 1858, September 22 and October 3, 
1859 (TYPE), J. Q. A. Fritchey; Webb City, September 25, 1908, B. F. 
Bush, no. 5175. Adventive in Marne: about wool waste, North 
Berwick, Sept. 25, 1897, J. C. Parlin. 
Another variation of Bidens aristosa which is anomalous is the plant 
with awnless achenes, which is found at various stations «in Ohio, 
Tennessee, Missouri and Louisiana, and is adventive in Massachusetts 
(Soldier's Field, Brighton, A. S. Pease; Sharon, S. F. Poole) and Con- 
necticut (waste land, South Windham, C. B. Graves, no. 259"). This is 
B. ARISTOSA, var. MUTICA (Gray) Gattinger, Fl. Tenn. 172 (1901). 
Coreopsis aristosa, var. mutica Gray, Syn. Fl. i. pt. 2, 295 (1878). 
The combination is here ascribed to Gattinger with hesitation, for 
according to a strict interpretation of the rules covering the transfer 
of names, Gattinger did not make the combination, for he ascribed it 
to Gray, who had called the plant a Coreopsis, and gave no biblio- 
graphical citation or synonymic reference. Unfortunately botanical 
literature is too full of such vaguely, hesitantly or unintentionally 
published names and it is a serious question whether they should be 
given more nomeclatorial weight than their authors actually intended.! 
By inference only can the combination be ascribed to Gattinger who 
merely said: "B. aristosa (Michx.) Britton. Var. mutica A. Gray”; 
but by the above complete citation the name is here given a more 
definite status. 
GRAY HERBARIUM. 
1 The writer is glad to note, since this paper went into type, a similar protest by 
Christensen against this unintelligent or unconscious publication of new combina- 
tions.— See Am. Fern Journ. iii, 1, 2 (1913). 
