54 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



botanical authors after Dioscorides mentioned phaseoliis, and Alber- 

 tus Magnus, who lived in the thirteenth century, used the word 

 " faselus " for a plant which had seeds with " a black spot at the 

 hilum." Caesalpin, 1583 (De Plantis, 238), also described " phase- 

 lus " as having seeds with a black pupil. 



Koernicke, 1885, Verhandlungen des naturhistorischen Vereins der 

 preussichen Rheinlande, Westfalens und des Reg.-Bezirke Osna- 

 briick, Correspondenzblatt, 136, maintains that the phaseolus of 

 Dioscorides and the phaseolus cultivated in Italy before the dis- 

 covery of America were the same species, '■''Vigna sinensis ^^"^ and that 

 the " Smilax kepaia " of Dioscorides was likewise that species, but a 

 climbing form. Koernicke states that a work of the year 1415, by 

 Rinio, a Venetian physician, contains a colored illustration of " Faseo- 

 lus," and he identifies this as Dolichos melanopthalmus DC. He 

 says also that in both Codices of Dioscorides of the fifth century 

 after Christ, which illustrate the plant named phaseolus, the figures 

 are likewise the low form of Yigna unguiculata, while for Smilax 

 kepaia an illustration is wanting. Koernicke, however, believes 

 Dolichos melanoj)thalmus DC, D. monachalis Brot., D. luhia Forsk., 

 D. sesquipedalis L. to be low forms, and D. catjang L., D. sinensis 

 Stickman, and D. tranqueharicus Jacq. to be climbing forms of the 

 same species. Baker, 1879 (in Hook. Fl. Brit. India, 2:20G), gives 

 F. sinensis as the climbing and T". catjang as the low form. Koer- 

 nicke says that the variation in the seeds is not greater than in 

 Phaseolus vulgaris^ and that dried plants in the Berlin Herbarium 

 show no specific differences. Vigna sinensis {Dolichos sinensis Stick- 

 man) on the basis of priority is adopted by Koernicke as the correct 

 name of the species, but he apparently overlooks the fact that 

 Dolichos unguiculatus L. {Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) is still 

 earlier. Koernicke gives central Africa as the original habitat of the 

 species. Dolichos sesquipedalis, the asparagus bean, is considered a 

 distinct species by most authors, and the writer can not agree with 

 Koernicke that all the other names apply to the same species or that 

 central Africa is the home of any of them. It is true that the habit 

 of growth, whether low or a climbing form, is of no specific value, for 

 Vigna unguicidata at least seems to vary in this respect. 



The color of the seeds likewise fails as a distinguishing specific 

 character. Dolichos iinguicidatuB L. was founded on specimens 

 grown in the garden at Upsala, but cam'e to Linmeus from Bar- 

 bados. Dolichos sinensis was based on Dolichos sinensis or Katjang 

 Sina of Rumphius, and the figure in Rumphius Herbarium Am- 

 boinense shows a climbing plant with two-flowered racemes and pen- 

 dulous pods. Dolichos catjang is likewise based on a species of 

 Rumphius, Phaseolus minor or katjang poeti. The figures of this 



102— VI 



