E. L. EKMAN, WEST INDIAN VERNONLE. 43 



Fischer (Petr). Be qui a: in declivibus montium inter 

 frutices, alt. 300 m, Julio 1890, H. H. et G. W. Smith il B. 

 297 (KU). Margarita: in monte San Juan, alt. 500 m, 

 19. 7. 03, J. R. Johnston n. 96 (H, KU). 



The history of this species goes back to the remarkable 

 voyage of Pltjmier and Surian in 1689 90. Having dis- 

 covered it, most probably, in Martinique, Plumier figured 

 it in Plum. ed. Burm., tab. 130, fig. 2, and upon this figure 

 LrNNiEus in Systema Naturae, 1759, p. 1213 based his Co- 

 ny za arborescens. 



There is a point to be discussed in this connection. 

 The passage in Systema Naturae, ed. X, where Linnaeus 

 describes Conyza arborescens reads as follows: C. (arbore- 

 scens) fol. ovatis integerrimis subtus tomentosis, spicis recur- 

 vatis secundis, bract, reflexis. Plum. ic. t. 130. f. 2. The 

 description is not merely copied from Plumier; for Llnnjeus 

 has given here some characters of his species that must refer 

 to another plant than that figured by Plumier, for instance 

 the statements fol. . . . subtus tomentosis, spicis recurva- 

 tis . There is full evidence as to which plant these statements 

 refer to. In 1758 Linnaeus had purchased a set of plants collected 

 in Jamaica by Patrick Browne, and among these plants 

 there was a specimen of a Vernonia, the same which I men- 

 tion in this paper, on p. 59, as V. divaricata Sw. This specimen 

 is now in the Linnaean Herbarium in London. When I was 

 there in 1910, I had not yet decided to study especially the 

 West Indian Vernoniae, and I only stated that under C. arbo- 

 rescens in the Linnaean Herbarium there were two plants: 

 the one V. divaricata Sw. from Jamaica, labelled in Llnnjeus's 

 handwriting Co?iyza arborescens)} from Br. ; the other 

 V. scorpioides (Lam.) Pers. from Guyana. Prof. C. A. M. 

 Lindman subsequently (in 1912) visited the Linnaean Society, 

 and obliged me by making a brief description and an exact 

 drawing of the two specimens in question. I thus easily 

 ascertained that the remarks fol. . . . subtus tomentosis, 

 spicis recurvatis refer to the plant collected by Browne. 

 Another statement in the description of Conyza arborescens, 

 bracteis reflexis , seems to refer to the plant figured by 

 Plumier, the specimen in the Linnaean Herbarium showing 

 only a few small bracts. As matters now stand, I think 

 M'e have better take the figure of Plumier connected with 



