96 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [august 



so fluctuating and inconstant that efforts to apply a binomial 

 system of nomenclature to the many species would be rendered 

 even much more difficult than before. I am constrained to reject, 

 therefore, any idea of seriously interfering with the general status of 

 Bidens. Cassini's name Campylotheca I am compelled to discard. 7 

 Having laid aside the name Campylotheca, there remains one 

 further matter with which to deal. As stated previously (Box. 

 Gaz. 59:308. 191 5), we find among the numerous species of Bidens 

 and the allied genus Coreopsis "no absolute uniformity in even one 

 distinctive character. However, one such character does persist 

 to a surprising extent. It is the presence (in Coreopsis) or absence 

 (in Bidens) of two lateral wings upon the mature achene. Among 

 so many species from widely remote regions does this character 

 separate two genera with different aspects that, in cases where other 

 criteria are absent, it appears to offer the only logical basis of dis- 

 tinction." This presence or absence of achene wings was given 

 great weight by Gray, but in the Pacific flora the wing character is 

 unreliable, and will lead, if absence of wings be demanded from all 

 species of Bidens, to an arbitrary and unnatural arrangement. 

 Some three or four Hawaiian forms commonly have accessory awns 

 or barbs below the achene's apex, and either these or the princi- 

 pal awns frequently are decurrent along the achenial edges as a 

 more or less thickened margin or even as a wing; or at times the 

 awns seem unrelated to the wings. In cc Coreopsis mauiensis" 

 Gray, these wings are very conspicuous. The number of Hawaiian 



7 In taking this step it is reassuring to read the words of so eminent a student of 

 the Compositae as Bentham. Speaking of Cassini and his work, he stated (Jour. 

 Linn. Soc. 13:338. 1873): " Unfortunately, however, in working out the details of 

 the genera in the ' Dictionnaire/ he indulged in an enormous and useless multiplica- 

 tion of generic names, which only tended to throw the nomenclature into confusion, 

 and cast a slur upon all his labors. Wherever he observed a slight difference in the 

 involucre, pappus, or general aspect, or could not readily identify an imperfect speci- 

 men, an engraved figure, or a description often incorrect, he at once set it down as a 

 new genus, and has thus, more than any other botanist of equal ability, overloaded 

 the science with useless synonyms. So recklessly, indeed, did he give way to this 

 mania of coining new names, that he on many occasions proposed two, or even three, 

 for the same genus, leaving future botanists to take their choice." Cassini did not 

 neglect Campylotheca in this respect. At the very outset he proposed Dolicotheca as an 

 alternative name. This latter name, however, was never adopted by Lessing, 

 De Candolle, or others. 



