326 swingle: the wood-apple, feronia limonia 



typical hard-shelled citrous fruits, a group including the genera 

 Feroniella, Aegle, Chaetospermum, Balsamocitrus, and Aeglop- 

 sis, with a range from Indo-Ohina and the Philippine Islands to 

 West Africa. 



The wood-apple was first given a binomial name by Linnaeus 

 in 1753 as Schinus Limonia (Sp. PI. 1:389), with citation to a 

 rather full description drawn up by Linnaeus himself and pub- 

 lished, in 1747, in his account of Hermann's herbarium of Cey- 

 lonese plants (Fl. Zeyl., pp. 77, 78, No. 175). Hermann's herba- 

 rium, now in the Botanical Department of the British Museum, 

 shows that the specimens studied by Linnaeus and labeled by his 

 own hand consist of two sterile twigs of the wood-apple. In 

 addition to this material there are in Linnaeus' own herbarium 

 two twigs with flowers and loose leaves of this plant, labeled 

 ''Limonia" in Linnaeus' handwriting. It is clear that Linnaeus 

 studied both flowers and foliage from his description in Flora 

 Zeylanica which he concludes as follows: "Ex flore & facie ad 

 hoc genus plantam retuli." 



Now, Linnaeus attempted to collate in his Flora Zeylanica 

 what had been published previously on tropical and especially 

 East Indian botany and in this case added references to some 

 seven previously published descriptions which he considered to 

 be synonymous but which represent three or four distinct species 

 belonging to as many genera. Two plates are cited, one in 

 Rumphius (Herb. Ajuboin. 2: 134, pi. IfS) representing a branch 

 of the wood-apple with flowers and young fruit, and one in Rheede 

 (Hortus Malabaricus 4: 31, pi. 14-) representing a branch with 

 flowers and mature fruits (also a section of fruit and seeds) of 

 quite a different plant, Hesperethusa crenulata (Roxb.) Roemer, 

 commonly but erroneously called Limonia acidissima L. 



The type of Schinus Limonia L. is certainly the plant described 

 by Linnaeus in his Flora Zeylanica, the wood-apple, notwithstand- 

 ing the citation of quite different species of previous authors as 

 synonyms. This is shown unmistakably not only by the type 

 specimens in the Hermann and Linnaean herbaria but also by 

 Linnaeus' description in Flora Zeylanica (p. 78) which says: 

 "foliola .... emarginata" which phrase cannot possibly 



