A REVISION OF THE GENUS FLAVERIA. 
By J. R. JoHNsTON. 
Presented by B. L. Robinson April 8, 1908. Received October 12, 1903. 
Nor since 1836, when A. P. DeCandolle_ enumerated in the Prodo- 
mus, v. 635, only four species of Flaveria, has there been a revision of 
the genus. Since DeCandolle’s time there have been over a dozen 
different plants published as new Flaverias, seven of which have proved 
to be good species. The need of another revision so far as the Mexican 
species are concerned is mentioned by Hemsley in the Biol. Cent.-Am. 
Bot. ii. 215 (1881-82), and the confusion in identification of certain 
species, together with the recent accumulation of specimens in the her- 
baria of this country, have emphasized its need. 
The history of the genus is considerably complicated by the diverse 
views expressed by the early writers, who treated its species. The 
name Flaveria (from the Latin flavus, golden yellow, the plants having 
been used to dye yellow) was first proposed by A. L. de Jussieu (1789), 
in his Genera Plantarum, for two plants from Chili and Peru. His 
meagre descriptions and the fact that he omitted specific names for the 
plants, and distinguished them from each other only by the spicate 
inflorescence of the Peruvian plant and the glomerate capitate heads 
of the Chilian, have given rise to different ideas concerning the type 
plant as well as its name. 
The reference of Jussieu to Feuille, Journ. Obs. Physiques, Mathe- 
matiques et Botaniques, iii. 18, t. 14, in speaking of the Chilian species, 
leaves no doubt that at least this one of the species described was the 
plant called “ contrayerba ”’ by the natives of Chili. Cavanilles in his 
Icones Plantarum, i. 2, t. 4 (1791), also referred to Feuille’s figure in 
describing Milleria Contrayerba, thus making it synonymous with the 
Chilian plant of Jussieu, who had distinguished Flaveria from Milleria 
merely because of the supposed absence of ligulate flowers. These were, 
nevertheless, found by Cavanilles, and in consequence he returned to the 
name Milleria, thus reducing Flaveria to the rank of asynonym. Ruiz 
