Studies in Penstemon-IX.: Notes on Northwestern American Species

Abstract

The preparation by the junior author of a treatment of Penstemon for a flora of the Pacific Northwest, in consultation with the senior author, has necessitated the validation of some herbarium names, and suggested the desirability of a few other taxonomic and nomenclatural changes. The authors are in agreement about all matters discussed in this paper, except that here as elsewhere the subspecies of the senior author are the varieties of the junior author. All subspecific combinations are therefore attributed to the senior author alone; some of the comparable varietal combinations will be made by the junior author in the text of the flora. Except as otherwise indicated, all specimens cited are deposited in the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden. The name Gerardia fruticosa Pursh was cited as a synonym by Hooker in the original publication of Penstemon menziesii Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. 2: 98. 1838. Hooker's name is illegitimate under Article 73 of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (1952), because, as circumscribed by him, it included the type of an epithet (fruticosus) which ought to have been adopted under the rules. Penstemon menziesii Hook. is now generally regarded as specifically distinct from P. fruticosus (Pursh) Greene, but Hooker's name, being illegitimate, cannot be retained. The oldest available name for the species which has customarily been known as P. menziesii is P. davidsonii Greene, but the types of these two names belong to different subspecies. As noted in Article 81 of the rules, the illegitihinacy of the name P. menziesii is no barrier to the use of the epithet in a different category, and the following name is therefore proposed.