TYPE SPECIMEN OF BOUTELOUA RAMOSA SCRIBN. EX VASEY (GRAMINEAE)

Abstract

SummaryVasey, in his Grasses of the Southwest (13 Oct. 1890), described and illustrated Bouteloua ramosa, crediting the authorship to Scribner. No specimen is cited, but in an account of G. C. Nealley's Texas grass collections published three months earlier (18 July 1890), Vasey lists B. ramosa, along with the note: “Chenate Mountains (Presidio County).” Comments in the literature are somewhat vague regarding the type of B. ramosa, although most authors state that it was a Nealley collection. Nevertheless, a Wilkinson specimen (at US) from Chihuahua, Mexico (not mentioned by Vasey) bears a note in Hitchcock's hand: “Taken as the type of B. ramosa Scribn… . .” It is argued here that the Nealley Chenate Mt. specimen is the type of B. ramosa since it was designated by Vasey as representing that species, even though in a publication which antedates his original description by three months.