Rhodora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 20. August, 1918. No. 236 
A PLEA FOR AUREOLARIA. 
Francis W. PENNELL. 
AMERICAN botanists owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. S. F. Blake for 
his verification of many types of the species published by early workers 
in our field, results presented in the scholarly series of papers which 
has been appearing in Ruopora. In the current volume, page 66, 
is given the identity of Rhinanthus virginicus L. I am glad to accept 
the correction proposed, and, with Dr. Blake, wonder by what chance 
Pursh confused this species with his own “new” Gerardia quercifolia. 
I cannot agree with Dr. Blake as to his application of the name 
Gerardia flava L. Linné gives citations — referring to Gronovius 
it is true — but after these he presents, as was his custom with species 
more carefully studied, a diagnosis. We know from B. D. Jackson’s 
Index to the Linnean Herbarium that in 1753 Linné had in his her- 
barium a specimen, and from various determinations, acceded to by 
Dr. Blake, this is the glaucous species. The diagnosis favors this. 
The leaves are described as “basi incisapinnatim sinubus patulis,” 
phrases usually too strong for the pubescent, but excellently describing 
the glaucous species. Moreover in the pubescent plant the flowers are 
very shortly and stiffly pediceled, so that the “spica” is scarcely to be 
characterized as “laxa.” ! To apply a Linnean name to a citation, 
in defiance of an extant specimen and a diagnosis apparently based 
upon this, is surely not warranted. 
But it is to plead for the segregation of “Gerardia,” or as I am 
pleased to note Dr. Blake agrees to term it Agalinis, that this paper is 
2 
1 Or if laza signifies a “‘spica” more broken, the advantage is still with the glaucous species. 
