﻿Notes on Baeria and Lasthenia* 



Harvey Monroe Hall 



In the North American Flora Baeria and Lasthenia are treated 

 as distinct genera although only one evident character can be 

 found upon which to maintain their separation. This consists in 

 the fusion of the involucral bracts into a definite cup-like structure 

 in the case of Lasthenia, while in Baeria the bracts are entirely 

 distinct or at the most only lightly united at the very base. 

 Genera based upon single characters are rarely satisfactory but 

 since in this case the species of each group are more closely related 

 to each other than they are to any species in the other group and 

 since the merging of the two into one, as was once attempted by 

 Dr. Greenef but later abandoned by the same author, J would 

 lead to much confusion in the nomenclature, it seems better to 

 retain each as a distinct genus. 



BAERIA 



The date assigned by most authors for the publication of 

 Baeria is 1835. Dr. J. H. Barnhart, to whom I am indebted for 

 much bibliographic assistance, has called my attention to the 

 fact that the signature in which the description appears was passed 

 by the Russian censor on December 25, 1835, and that after 

 making proper allowance for the difference between the Russian 

 (Julian) and Gregorian calendars the actual date of publication 

 must have been after the first of January, 1836. It is certain, 

 however, that Baeria was published before Burrielia, its oldest 

 synonym, for the part of De Candolle's Prodromus containing 

 the diagnosis of this latter genus did not appear until after the 

 middle of 1836. 



With Lasthenia eliminated, Baeria forms a satisfactory natural 



American Flora by the aul 

 t Man. Bay Reg. 203. 

 tFl. Fran. 437- iSp? 



