The Cutright (1969: 408) typification precedes that of Ewan (1979: 74) who considered the sheet at K to be the lectotype. While the Kew specimen is annotated "Elaeagnus argentea. Fl. Amer.: Pursh" by Lambert, there is no direct evidence this is a Lewis and Clark collection. In fact, it probably is not. Pursh refers to a Nuttall specimen in his original descriptions and Nuttall (1818: 97) reports he collected the species at or near Fort Mandan in 1811 near what is now Bismarck, North Dakota. There is no Nuttall sheet in the Lambert Herbarium at The Academy of Natural Sciences. Also, the nature of the specimens on the two sheets is markedly different. The Lewis sheet is a much younger specimen than the late season plant we believe Nuttall gathered. Accordingly, we strongly suspect the K sheet originally in Lambert's possession is the Nuttall specimen alluded to by Pursh and accordingly consider it a paratype rather than a duplicate of the lectotype. The fact that the Pursh name is a later homonym was ignored until Rydberg corrected the error in 1917. Lewis obtained the specimens in Nevada Valley, Powell Co., Montana, on 6 Jul 1806, at what he called "the prairi of the Knobs" (Moulton, 1993: 93). Recently the name, Elaeagnus commutata, has been attributed to Bernhardi (Great Plains Flora Association, 1986), suggesting the name was proposed in 1843 (e.g., Allg. Thüring. Gartenzeitung 2: 137. 1843; see Hitchcock, Univ. Wash. Publ. Biol. 17(3): 460. 1961). Thanks to Ms. Ingrid Arnold, head of the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek in Weimar, German, we have been able to examine the anonymous paper entitled "Ueber einige Eläagneen unserer Lustgebuesche" [On some Elaeagnaceae in our gardens] in this rare journal. The name appears on page 95, not 137. The relevant part of the text reads (in a translation provided by Dr. Norbert Kilian) as follows: "The plants of Shepherdia [argentea Nutt.] that Loudon received from North America, however, agree with the plants named Elaeagnus argentea Pursh in the garden of the Horticultural Society ["Gartenbau-Verein"] of London. As in [Endlicher's] Hort. Vindob. Shepherdia argentea is marked as a low shrub, it is there hardly the right species. In our German gardens, the shrub named as Elaeagnus argentea or, even more frequently as E. macrophylla, is, with respect to its flowers and fruits, a true Elaeagnus. It does not belong to E. argentea Pursh, if Loudon's determination is correct; but it also does not belong to E. macrophylla according to the description of the latter given by Thunberg, although our shrub is named E. macrophylla in France. Seemingly it is a still undetermined species, which could be named Elaeagnus commutata." We consider the name, Elaeagnus commutata, to be provisional and therefore not validly published (Art. 34.1(b); Greuter et al., 1994). Accordingly, Rydberg is the first author to validly publish the name. (The Lewis & Clark Herbarium Digital Imagery Study Set, ANSP, 2002) On deposit at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia Collected by:Meriwether Lewis & William Clark Collection date:07/06/1806