( 216) 
Vernonia maxima Small, Bull. Torrey Club 27: 00. 
Vernonia gigantea pubescens Morris, Proc. Biol. se Washington 
7 179. 
cn 10-30 dm. high, frequently branched above; stem glabrous 
or nearly so; leaves see iptic, lanceolate or lance-ovate, 
15-25 cm. long, 3-7 cm. wide, long-acuminate, attenuate at base, 
sharply and irregularly analseie or rarely nearly entire, glabrous or 
scabrellate above, glabrous or puberulent beneath; inflorescence 
attened or concave, loose, 2-5 dm. across; heads 21-29-flowered ; 
m. 
to obtuse or short-cuspidate at the tip; pappus purplish, 5-7 mm 
long. 
Type locality: ‘* Near Savannah in Georgia, and throughout the 
States of Ohio and Kentucky, on the margins of streams and 
swamps.” 
Distribution: from western Pennsylvania to Missouri, south to 
Louisiana and Mississippi. 
As might be expected in a species having such a wide dis- 
tribution, there is considerable variation in the character and 
amount of foliage. One sheet from Missouri, Mackenzie 97, has 
firm leaves with the serration reduced and a tawny pappus. Some 
have leaves with salient teeth and smaller involucres, approaching 
V. flaccidifolia. One of these, Tracy &537, has heads with as 
few as 15 flowers. A specimen from Westfield, Mississippi, has 
linear or narrowly lanceolate upper leaves which are nearly or 
quite entire. #ushk 1906 has smaller leaves, sparingly serrate 
with low teeth, broadest above the middle, scarcely acuminate, 
and a smaller inflorescence with dull-purple pappus 
The choice of the oldest valid name for the species is attended 
with some difficulty, and the introduction of an old name displaced 
in recent publications calls for an explanation. The solution of the 
question rests entirely on the identity of the Verzonda altissima of 
Nuttall. Until recent years this name has covered two species, the 
one here described and V. gigantea Britton. In the publication 
of the latter name Britton did not attempt to separate the two 
forms, but merely substituted Walter’s old name, and indeed the 
particular collection which led to this nomenclatorial change was 
V, altissima. Gray was apparently the first to recognize two 
forms under the aggregate, when he mentioned in the Synoptical 
Flora the form parviflora ‘* with involucre only 2 or 3 lines high 
