xv, 2 Merrill: Melodorum of Loureiro 127 



case of a generic name proposed by Loureiro currently applied 

 to a group of species quite different from Loureiro's original 

 conception of the genus. 



From an examination of the sketch of Loureiro's type kindly 

 prepared by Mr. J. G. Baker I am confident that Melodorum 

 fruticosum Lour, is the species currently known as Rolyalthia 

 aberrans Maingay and which has been variously described by 

 several authors as Polyalthia affinis Teysm. & Binn., P. siamensis 

 Boerl., and Unona mesneyi Pierre, and which was eventually 

 transferred to Popowia by Pierre as Popoiuia aberrans Pierre. 

 From this I cannot distinguish Popoiuia diospyrifolia Pierre by 

 any satisfactory characters. Pierre 5 has given a detailed account 

 of the characters of this species, indicating that it approaches 

 Popowia in certain respects, but concluding that it cannot be 

 referred to Endlicher's genus. He found that it is, in most re- 

 spects, a Polyalthia but proposed for it the group name Mesneya. 

 as a subgenus of Unona. Safford 6 has clearly shown that the 

 so-called Old World species of Unona have nothing to do with 

 Unona as originally described by the younger Linnaeus, this being 

 an American genus, the proper generic name for the Old World 

 species being Desmos Lour. King 7 notes that Polyalthia aber- 

 rans Maing., as interpreted by him, "save, and except in the 

 much smaller size of the flowers," much resembles the plant 

 figured and described by Pierre under the name of Unona 

 mesneyi, and to which Pierre reduced Polyalthia aberrans. An 

 examination of Cochinchina material now available to me for 

 study and comparison shows that the size of the flowers in 

 Pierre's drawing is greatly exaggerated, and that they are drawn 

 all out of proportion to the leaves. 



In interpreting the true status of Melodorum as described 

 by Loureiro, we find that the type of the genus is a species 

 aberrant in all of the genera in which it has been placed. It 

 is to be noted that Pierre proposed for it the group name Mes- 

 neya (as a subgenus), and that Scheffer, quoted by Boerlage," 

 proposed for the same form the generic term Sphaerocoryne. 

 For the present it seems best to retain Melodorum as a genus 

 closely allied to Popoiuia, for which the names Mesneya Pierre 

 and Sphaerocoryne Scheffer are exact synonyms. Polyalthia 



'PL Forest. Cochinch. 1 (1880) t. 17. 

 •Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 39 (1912) 501-508. 

 T Ann. Bot. Gard. Calcutta 4 (1893) 78. 



8 Boerl. in Ic. Bogor. 1 (1899) 196, in nota sub Polyalthia siamensis 

 Boerl. 



