92 EEYTHEA. 



the first appearance of such warrant, for crediting Nuttall with 

 the name Chrysopsis Mariana. But he as explicitly prints 



Mar 



Now 



against this one misprint which at first glance seems to favor 

 the crediting this species to Nuttall there are four conclusive 

 reasons for declining to assert that this author in 1818, 

 named any species of Chfysoi^sis, 



1. He numbers his genera; and these plants all fall under 

 his genus n. 558, INULA. 



2. His subgenus CheysopsiSj he makes only a group of 

 INULA species. 



3. He numbers all species consecutively under their 

 proper genera, and this is his only regular method of indi- 

 cating for each species what the generic name is. His n. 1 is 

 Inula Helenium^ and his n. 2 is /- gossypma; number 4 is 

 /. Mariana^ and so on. 



4 In the Transactions of the American Philosophical 

 Society (YoL viL p. 318), he distinctly disclaims the right to 

 the names O, graminifolia and C, argentea, crediting them 

 to Elliott; thus definitely asserting, what was plain enough 

 before, that he had himself called these 1. graminifolia and 

 J. argentea^ in 1818, 



Elliott, in 1821, elevated the group Chrysopsis to generic 

 rank, and became the author of the species as species of 

 Chrysopsis; and this was clear to De Candolle and to Nuttall, 

 who so wrote. Indeed it was not until 1834 tliat Nuttall him- 

 self openly acknowledged Chrysopsis as of generic rank; 

 though it may be surmised that even in 1818 he at first may 

 have written it in the rank of a genus, and then, in the manu- 

 script or in the proof, reduced it, forgetting to erase the two 

 C:s in the notes. This hypothesis will account for the 

 occurrence of those offending and trouble- making letters. 

 But in any case, the arguments are four to one against credit- 

 ing Nuttall with the genus Chrysopsis, or any species under 

 that name, earlier than the year 1834; and Elliott is very 

 manifestly sponsor for the genus, and for the binomials now 

 sometimes attributed to Nuttall. 



