532 merkill: the generic name nauclea of linnaeus 



did not solve this problem of nomenclature in his revision of 

 the group. Britten,- in his appreciative review of Haviland's 

 paper, states: 



The retention of Nauclea necessitates the statement "typus nullus" 

 after the name; then, after a definition of the genus as now understood, 

 comes a reference to ''Naticlea Linn. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 243," followed by 

 the remark, "none of the plants called Nauclea by Linnaeus are now in 

 this genus, although there is no doubt he would have called those in 

 it Nauclea if he had seen them." But as Mr. Haviland tells us else- 

 where that "Linnaeus founded his Nauclea orientalis on two species 

 of Sarcocephalus" it is difficult to see how the retention of his name for 

 the plants he described could be regarded as a hindrance. 



To be strictly accurate, Nauclea orientalis Linn, involves three 

 different species of Sarcocephahis , rather than two. Haviland's 

 stand on this simple question had led him illogically to retain 

 Sarcocephalus as the valid name for what should be Nauclea; 

 he has quoted the type of genus Nauclea as a synonym of Sar- 

 cocephalus cordatus Miq. ; and as to Nauclea itself, while still 

 crediting Linnaeus as authority for the genus, he retains nothing 

 in the genus placed there by Linnaeus himself, and is obliged to 

 admit that Nauclea as interpreted by him, following modern 

 usage, has no type. Others^ have solved the dilemma by illogi- 

 cally and incorrectly crediting the authorship of Nauclea to 

 Korthals. 



The history of this nomenclatural anomaly begins with the 

 publication of the genus Cephalanthus by Linnaeus i^ but the 

 type of the genus Cephalanthus is perfectly clear, • although 

 Linnaeus included in the first edition of his Species Plantarum 

 two generically distinct species, Cephalanthus occidentalis Linn, 

 and C. orientalis Linn. The type of the genus is clearly indi- 

 cated as the former by Linnaeus: "Character desumtus est a 

 specie occidentali, quum orientalis fructus nobis non dum suf- 

 ficienter innotuit." 



In the second edition of the Species Plantarum Linnaeus 

 separated Cephalanthus orientalis from the genus Cephalanthus, 



2 Notes on the Naucleeae. Journ. Bot. 35: 336 340. 1897. 



^ Dalla Torre and Harms, Genera Siphonogamarum, 495. 1905. 



•< Genera Plantarum, 61. 1737; ed. 5, 42. 17.54. 



