LECTOTYPIFICATION OF PECTIS L. (ASTERACEAE)

LECTOTYPIFICATION OF PECTIS L. (ASTERACEAE) David J. Keil' Linnaeus (1759a) described Pectis and included within it two species, P. ciliaris and P. linifolia. In 1913 Britton and Brown designated P. ciliaris as the lectotype for Pectis. This lectotypification was accepted by the editors of Index Nominum Genericorum (Plantarum) (Farr et al., 1979). I will present evidence below that the lectotypification of Pectis by Britton and Brown was superfluous and that Pectis was actually lectotypified over 90 years earlier by Cassini. Britton and Brown as adherents of the American Code of Botanical Nomenclature (Anonymous, 1907) followed the mechanical practice of designating "the first binomial species in order" as the lectotype of a genus. This appears to have been the method of lectotypification used for Pectis. This practice is in conflict with the provisions of Article 8 of the International Code of Botanical Nomen- clature (Voss et al., 1983). The choice of Pectis ciliaris as lectotype is also in conflict with the Linnaean protologue of Pectis. Linnaeus (1759a) included both a diagnosis (p. 1221) and a description (p. 1376) for Pectis. The diagnosis is very brief: PECTIS. Recept. nudum. Pappus aristatus. Cal. 5-phyllus, cylindricus. Flosculi radiantes 5. Of the features described, the receptacle, the involucre [cal.] and the number of ray florets are the same for both P. ciliaris and P. linifolia. However, only P. linifolia has an aristate pappus. Linnaeus's description of the genus is more thorough than the diagnosis but he again described the pappus of