A REVISION OF THE GENUS FLAVERIA. 

 By J. R. Johnston. 



Presented by B. L. Robinson April 8, 1903. Received October 12, 1903. 



Not since 1836, when A. P. DeCandolle enumerated in the Prodo- 

 nius, v. 635, only four species of Flaveria, has there been a revision of 

 the genus. Since DeCandolle's time there have been over a dozen 

 different plants published as new Flaverias, seven of which have proved 

 to be good species. The need of another revision so far as the Mexican 

 species are concerned is mentioned by Hemsley in the Biol. Cent. -Am. 

 Bot. ii. 215 (1881-82), and the confusion in identification of certain 

 species, together with the recent accumulation of specimens in the her- 

 baria of this country, have emphasized its need. 



Tlie history of the genus is cousiderably complicated by the diverse 

 views expressed by the early writers, who treated its species. The 

 name Flaveria (from the Latin Jtavus, golden yellow, the plants having 

 been used to dye yellow) was first proposed by A. L. de Jussieu (1789), 

 in his Genera Plantarum, for two plants from Chili and Peru. His 

 meagre descriptions and the fact that he omitted specific names for the 

 plants, and distinguished them from each other only by the spicate 

 inflorescence of the Peruvian plant and the glomerate capitate heads 

 of the Chilian, have given ri^e to different ideas concerning the type 

 plant as well as its name. 



Tiie reference of Jussieu to Feuille, Journ. Obs. Physiques, Mathe- 

 matiques et Botauiques, iii. 18, t. 14, in speaking of the Chilian species, 

 leaves no doubt that at least this one of the species described was the 

 plant called " contrayerba " by the natives of Chili. Cavanilles in his 

 Icoues Plantarum, i. 2, t. 4 (1791), also referred to Feuille's figure in 

 describing Milleria Contrayerba, thus making it synonymous with the 

 Chilian plant of Jussieu, who had distinguished Flaveria from Milleria 

 merely because of the supposed absence of ligulate flowers. These were, 

 nevertheless, found by Cavanilles, and in consequence he returned to the 

 name Milleria, thus reducing Flaveria to the rank of a synonym. Ruiz 



