The genus Vernonia in the Bahamas 



Henry Allan Gleason 



In the recent Bahamian collections made for the New York 

 Botanical Garden is abundant material representing the genus 

 Vernonia and including- some interesting new forms. Dr. N. L. 

 Britton has referred them to me for study and has also given 

 numerous valuable suggestions concerning their specific char- 

 acters. The specimens cited are all in the herbarium of the New 

 York Botanical Garden. 



In 1864 Grisebach, in the Flora of the British West Indies, 

 described a species of Vernonia from the Bahamas as V. baJia- 

 mensis. Since then numerous collections have been made and the 

 species has been mentioned frequently in literature pertaining to 

 the islands. It is, however, an aggregate, and three related but 

 distinct species are represented in recent collections. In addition 

 a second type, represented by a fourth species belonging to a 

 widely different section of the genus, has recently been collected 

 and demands recognition as new. A widely distributed tropical 

 species, V. cinerea, is introduced in New Providence Is*and. 



Vernonia baliamensis as characterized by Grisebach has the 

 14 heads single, sessile at the top of leafy branches." The two re- 

 lated species resemble it to some extent in this character. The 

 three may together be regarded as members of the section Lcpi- 

 daploa, subsection Scorpioideac, in which the scorpioid cymes have 

 been much reduced, even to a single flower as in V. bahamcnsis. 

 Indications of this reduction are seen in V longifolia Pers. with its 

 varieties Sintcnisii Urban and Vahliana Urban of the Windward 

 Islands and Porto Rico. The internodes of the cyme are short- 

 ened, and the heads are fewer than in typical scorpioid Vernoniae, 

 and the whole inflorescence but little exceeds the upper foliage 



leaves. 



Scorp, 



foliatac, and Scorpioideae aphyllac, and the name Scorp 

 reductae will indicate the peculiarities of its inflorescence. 



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