40 Contributions from the Gray Herbarium 
ActingEa Juss. Annal. Mus. Nat. ii. 425 (1803). Actznella Pers. 
Syn. Pl. ii. 469 (1807).. Tetraneuris Greene, Pitt. iii. 265 (1898). 
In 1891 Kuntze, in his Revisio Generum Plantarum, i. 303, out- 
lined the history of the use of the generic name Actinella and 
adopted the name Actinea of Jussieu for those plants treated by 
Gray and others under the former name. In this connection he 
showed [as indeed Gray himself indicated in Proc. Am. Acad. xix. 
31 (1883)] that Persoon merely renamed Jussieu’s genus and that 
Nuttall, Gen. ii. 173 (1818), did not mean to establish a new genus 
under the name Actinella (as Nelson, Hall and others have taken) 
but simply thought that he had a plant referable to Actinella of 
Persoon. Actinella Pers. is therefore an out-and-out synonym of 
Actinea Juss. and Actinella of Nuttall is in no sense a new name but 
merely represents an interpretation on the part of Nuttall of a 
certain plant as belonging to Persoon’s genus. In 1898, Greene, in 
Pitt. iii. 264, questioned the generic identity of the plants of Nut- 
tall and Jussieu, proposing for the former the generic name Tet- 
raneuris Greene, |. ¢. 265, and this name has been recently taken 
up by Rydberg in his treatment of the Helenieae in the North 
American Flora, xxxiv. 100, 101 (1915). Since neither the author 
of Tetraneuris, nor Rydberg, indicate in any way whatsoever the 
relationship of the plants included therein to Actinea heterophylla 
Juss. (the original species of both Actinea and Actinella) a discus- 
sion of the situation seems in order. As early as 1878 Dr. Gray 
the Proc. Am. Acad. xiii. 374, wrote, “ As to the original Actinella 
of Persoon (Actinea heterophylla, Juss.), which seems out of place 
among the globular- and discoid-headed Cephalophorae, it is inter- 
mediate in character between Helenium and Actinella of Nuttall, 
differing from the latter only in the looser, thinner, and smaller — 
scales of the involucre. If, notwithstanding this, it were referred 
to Actinella, this genus would be restored to Persoon, Or, under 
the form of Actinea, to Jussieu. But probably Persoon’s plant 
should be referred to Heleniwm.” Nevertheless in the Syn. Fl. i. 2 
344 he wrote,“ Actinella Pers., Nutt. (changed from Actinea Juss., 
...a 8. American form, somewhat approaching Helenium)- 
This would seem to indicate that Gray considered the South Amer 
can plant congeneric with ours especially when it is noted in Proc. 
Am. Acad. xix. 32 (1883) that he referred A. heterophylla Juss. 
definitely. to Actinella with the remark “ Certainly belongs here 
