OBSEBYATIONS ON THE COMPOSITE. 91 



nent; and yet, Asa Gray, in the SynopUcal Flora, credited 

 the Appalachian flora with eight species of true Chrysopsis 

 and the much more vast western region with one species in 

 ten named varieties. This generalization is most improbable. 

 If there are eight species on the Atlantic side of the United 

 States, it is antecedently more likely that eighteen species 

 should occur at the far West, seeing that the type is essen- 

 tially a western one in all its nearest affinities. And truly it 

 may be said that in the herbaria there is represented even 

 more diversity of western forms than of eastern ones, and 

 with about as wide extremes. The admitting of one western 

 species, and of eight eastern ones was not an impartial treat- 

 ment of the genus. But it is impossible to convince an 

 eastern closet botanist of the magnitude of our territory west 

 of the Mississippi, and equally impossible to create in his 

 mind a notion of the endless diversities of soil and climate 

 embraced between the Eocky Mountains and the Pacific sea- 

 board. Dr. Gray had no practical acquaintance with the 

 western Chrysopsis territory; and the thought perhaps never 

 occuried to him that his proposition of eight eastern species, 

 and one western one in ten varieties, was a contradiction of 

 all the analogies of American plant distribution. 



Before passing to enumerate the species of this genus as I 

 understand them, I must revert to one matter appertaining 

 to tlie bibliography. 



There is disagreement among eminent authors as to who 

 shall be credited with the names, both generic and specific, 

 of the older speciesj some attributing them to Nuttall, others 

 to Elliott; though to a logical mind the question is not a diffi- 

 cult one, notwithstanding that Nuttall in 1818 was a little 



ambiguous. 



)/ Noi 



American Plants numbers, names and describes all the 

 species known to him as species of the genus Inula, yet in 

 notes appended to descriptions he in two instances prints a C 

 instead of the J. which the text calls for, thus in these two 

 exceptional cases he is found to say Chrysopsis Mariana, and 

 C. graminifolia. There is literal warrant, therefore, or at least 



