swingle: the wood-apple, feronia limonia 327 



apply to any of the other plants of which descriptions are cited 

 by Linneaus in the synonomy. This fact was first pointed out by 

 Trimen/ in 1887, on the basis of the specimens preserved in 

 Hermann's herbarium. Apparently he did not know of the 

 existence of the flowering specimen in Linnaeus' own herbarium. 



In 1762, Linnaeus, in the first volume of the second edition of 

 his Species Plantarum, abandons the name Schinus Limonia, 

 restricting the genus Schinus to the Peruvian pepper trees and 

 creating a new genus, Limonia, for the wood-apple which he 

 calls Limonia acidissima. He does not cite the Schinus Limonia 

 of the first edition of Species Plantarum as a synonym, but his 

 use of the former specific name as the generic name and the 

 reference to his previous description in Flora Zeylanica make it 

 clear that Limonia acidissi?na L. is merely another name for 

 Schinus Limonia L. The original specific name could not be 

 retained without forming a duplicate binomial, a barbarism which 

 Linnaeus never countenanced. 



Four citations are given under Limonia acidissima. The first 

 is to Burman's Thesaurus Zeylanicus, p. 143, which includes two 

 or more species, one of them being very probably the common lime 

 Citrus aurantifolia (Christm.) Swing. The second citation is to 

 his own Flora Zeylanica, p. 77, 78, and certainly applies to the 

 wood-apple. The third citation is to Rumphius Herbarium 

 Amboinense, vol. 2, pi. J^3, which is also the wood-apple or a 

 closely allied species. The fourth citation is to Rheede, Hortus 

 Malabaricus, Pt. 4, pi. 14, and is Hesperethusa crenulata (Roxb.) 

 Roem. 



Linnaeus thus confused several very distinct plants under his 

 Limonia acidissima. Unfortunately, practically all post-Lin- 

 naean authors apply this name to a small-fruited Indian tree, 

 Hesperethusa crenulata (Roxb.) Roem., while the wood-apple is 

 commonly called Feronia elephantum Correa. 



Fortunately, the confusion that would be caused by changing 

 the current application of the name Limonia and applying it to the 

 wood-apple can be avoided, because the name Limonia proves to 



^ Trimen, H. Hermann's Ceylon Herbarium and Linnaeus's "Flora Zeylanica," 

 in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot., 24: 142 (n. 160, 28 Nov. 1887). 



