72 STAND ley: the generic name achyranthes 



BOTANY. — The application of the generic name Achyranthes.'^ 

 Paul C. Standley, National Museum. 



The generic name Achyranthes was appHed by Linneaus in 

 1753 to a group of plants now placed in the family Amaranthaceae. 

 Linnaeus' genus included several species which are now referred 

 to three genera, only two of which need receive consideration 

 here. When, in working recently with the Amaranthaceae for 

 the North American Flora, it became necessary to determine 

 the type species of the genus, the writer was much surprised to 

 find it to be Achyranthes repens L,, a plant usually referred to 

 Alternanthera, a member of the tribe Gomphreneae. Achyran- 

 thes has commonly been applied to a quite different group of 

 species, of the tribe Achyrantheae. It thus becomes necessary 

 to reapply it in a sense historically correct, and to substitute 

 another name for the Achyranthes of recent authors. . 



It is unfortunate that the name x^chyranthes must be used 

 in a sense other than that in which it has generally been employed 

 in recent years. The earlier botanists, however, placed most 

 of the species of Alternanthera in Achyranthes, so that at least 

 those botanists who urge the use of generic names according to 

 their original application cannot complain of the changes now 

 introduced. There seems, moreover, to be no doubt as to 

 the type of the genus Achyranthes, under the American Code of 

 nomenclature. Linnaeus' genera of the Species Plantarum are 

 to be typified by the citations in the Genera Plantarum of 1754. 

 In that work we find under the name Achyranthes a single cita- 

 tion, — Achyracantha Dill. Elth. pi. 7, f. 7. This illustration is 

 cited by Linnaeus under Achyranthes repens, which species 

 thus becomes the type of the genus. Furthennore, the generic 

 description given by Linnaeus applies better to this plant than 

 to those lately referred to Achyranthes. In all the editions of 

 the Genera Plantarum the Dillenian citation is the only one 

 listed. On the other hand, Stachyarpagophora VailL, which 

 is Achyranthes as recently accepted, is cited by Linnaeus under 

 Celosia. 



^ Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



