GLEASON: TAXONOMIC STUDIES IN VERNONIA 241 
only species A; at least he cites two collections which cover that 
species in the New York collection and fails to mention the 
peculiar involucre of species B, which is utterly unlike that of any 
other North American species. This species A is designated by 
him V. buxifolia (Cass.) Less., although he has not seen Cassini's 
type, and as a synonym he adds V. domingensis (Spreng.) DC., 
the type of which he has seen. These two names have been re- 
garded as synonymous for over eighty years. The writer, in 1906, 
considered that species B was the true V. buxifolia, and described 
species A as new under the name V. montana. From this de- 
scription and the cited specimen Ekman recognized that V: 
montana was co-specific with the plants which he had examined, 
and reduced V. montana to synonymy. At the same time he was 
unable to match Gleason’s description of V. buxifolia (species B) 
with anything he had seen in European collections and decided 
that it was probably a new species. When he examined the New 
York material of these in 1914 he annotated the sheets of species 
A as genuine V. buxifolia and those of species B as “V. buxifolia 
forma.”’ 
Cassini described the involucre of Lepidaploa buxifolia as 
turbinate and regularly imbricated, with an assemblage of short 
rounded scales covering the summit of the peduncle at the base 
of the head. In this feature it can agree only with species B. 
De Candolle, in examining the type of Sprengel’s Proustia domin- 
gensis, used terms which certainly apply to species B, but which 
do not emphasize the peculiar involucre. One can scarcely 
imagine that he would have passed by such a striking feature if 
the specimen had exhibited it. The writer is therefore convinced 
of the justice of maintaining V. buxifolia for species B, as he did 
in his revision in 1906. For species A, he must be guided by the 
negative evidence of De Candolle and the positive statement of 
Ekman in regard to V. domingensis, use that name for species 
A, and relegate his own V. montana to synonymy. 
Vernonia morelana sp. nov. 
A shrub 3-5 m. high, branching above; stems striate, closely 
gray-tomentose, becoming glabrate with age; leaf-blade firm, 
dull-green, ovate-oblong, 3 X 7.5 cm., on tomentose petioles 8mm. 
