E. L. EKMAN, WEST INDIAN VERNONIiE. 45 



their plants han been collected. Thus it became obvious, 

 in our case, that the type of V. arborescens could not be the 

 Jamaican plant, Plumier and Surian never having visited 

 Jamaica. In 1902 Prof. Ign. Urban succeeded in recognizing 

 the type of V. arborescens in a plant sent by Duss from Mar- 

 tinique, though he did not publish his discovery. I am happy 

 to mention that on a visit to Paris I found the Conyza arbo- 

 rescens in the Surian Herbarium, fasc. 2, n. 198. It is the 

 same plant as that of Duss, and represents a leafy form of 

 V. icosantha DC. The Surian plant must be considered as 

 the type of V . arborescens (L.), being most probably the origin- 

 al of the figure in Plum. ed. Burm. 



The application of the name V. arborescens to the Mar- 

 tinique plant being thus adopted here, an interesting question 

 remains. How to quote the author of the combination 

 V. arborescens (L.)? The first to transfer Conyza arborescens 

 L. into Vernonia was Swartz. But the description of his 

 V. arborescens is incorrect, as is its distribution, Swartz 

 having the Jamaican plant in mind. Now the question is: 

 can Swartz be cited as author of the combination V. arbo- 

 rescens (L.), applied to the Martinique plant? I think he can, 

 and must, be so cited. For the operation of transferring a spe- 

 cies from one genus into another is a matter independent of the 

 plant at the same time described. The new combination 

 formed belongs to the same plant to which' the original name 

 was given; it has, in other words, the same type as this, the 

 two names are tj T ponyms in the American sense of the word. 

 And the one who first published it is to be cited as author 

 of the combination. Thus in our case, Swartz is to be cited 

 for V. arborescens (L.), and this name has for its type the 

 type of Conyza arborescens L. When Swartz refers the Jam- 

 aican plant to his combination, it is simply a false determin- 

 ation. I have asked Prof. Urban for his opinion on this 

 matter, and he answered me: Die Vernonia arborescens- 

 -Frage ist mir vollstandig gegenwartig, da ich bereits vor 

 vielen Jahren die Plumiersche Abbildung mit Vernonia ico- 

 santha DC. von Martinique identifiziert habe. . . . Friiher 

 war ich auch der Meinung, dass man auf Grund einer solchen 

 Identifizierung nochmals die Combination vornehmen unci 

 seinen eigenen Namen als Autor dahinter schreiben soil. 

 Ich habe sie jetzt aufgegeben, weil sie unpraktisch und nicht 



