314 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [april 



Bot. Club 20:280. 1893) shows that he was merely treating a 

 group of Coreopsis species of Gray's Synoptical flora en masse, 

 and was concerned with their generic rather than specific status. 

 And study of Gray's descriptions and notes (Gray, Synop. Fl. 

 N. Amer. i n :204. 1884) shows that Gray equated, though some- 

 what provisionally, Coreopsis aurea Ait. with C. coronata of the 

 Linnean Herbarium, a view retained as well by Britton (Britton 

 and Brown, Illustr. Fl. 3:498. 1913). 



My search through the material of Bidens and nearly allied 

 genera at Kew Herbarium failed to reveal an original specimen of 

 Coreopsis aurea Ait., but a good and authentic sheet from Kew 

 Gardens, in 1785, occurs in the Herbarium of the British Museum. 

 It is the form recently treated by authors as Bidens coronata (e.g., 

 Britton and Brown, /. c). In the Linnaean Herbarium, more- 

 over, there still exists the original superb specimen of Coreopsis 

 coronata L. It lacks mature achenes, but its several beautiful 8-rayed 

 heads, with the rays strikingly well arranged on the paper (fig. 3), 

 leave no doubt that Linnaeus had this specimen at hand when 

 describing C. corona ta (Sp. Plant, ed. 2. 2:1281. 1763; "radio magno, 

 octopetalo," etc.). While, indeed, Linnaeus cited in his synonomy 

 plants of Vaillant and of Plummier, these have been justly ex- 

 cluded by subsequent authors. Thus, for forming a true conception 

 of C. coronata L., there are left for us the Linnaean specimen and 

 description. The latter, by itself, is inadequate. The former, in 

 Gray's time, seemed likewise disappointing, as being too nearly 

 intermediate between C. aurea Ait. and C. trichospcrma Michx. of 

 his Synoptical flora. But, in later years, numerous specimens of 

 these last two species have been added to our American herbaria 

 and show very clearly differences in leaf outlines that Gray, with 

 his scantier material, could not properly define. A comparison with 

 these specimens shows at once that the Linnaean type is the Coreopsis 

 trichospcrma Gray (I. c), and hence Bidens tricliospcrma Britton. 7 



' Since the foregoing lines were written, Dr. N. L. Brittox has kindly written me 

 that many years ago he examined the Linnaean type, but, while entertaining doubts 

 as to its true status, felt constrained, for want of achenes, to follow Gray's treatment, 

 except as to generic affiliations. Howev'er, Dr. M. L. Fernald has just informed me 

 that Cray's fragment at Gray Herbarium, from the Linnaean Herbarium (where 

 certain heads are missing on the single type specimen), "shows perfectly characteristic 

 fruit of B. trichospcrma, not of B. coronata of recent authors," thus confirming my 

 conclusions in a most emphatic way. 



